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[Green  Fund  Book,  No.  G.] 

THE 

CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

OF 

Capital  and  Labor. 


$1000    PRIZE    BOOK 

"LABORARE  EST  ORARK'* 


BY 

H.  W.  OADMAK 


For  the  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire.  .  .  .  For,  brethren,  ye  have  been  called 
nnto  liberty  ;  only  use  not  liberty  for  an  occasion  to  the  fleuh,  but  by  love  serve  one 
another.— 7%«  Bible. 

One  of  the  noblest  functions  of  Christianity  in  the  world  is  to  lie  behind  the  class 
crysUllizations  of  mankind,  like  a  solvent  into  which  they  shall  return  and  blend  with 
one  another. — Phillips  BroolM. 

In  the  ethical  code  you  find  the  true  root  of  economic  laws.— £miZ«  de  Laveleye. 


PHILADELPHIA : 

THE  AMERICAN  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  UNION, 
1122  Chestnut  Street. 


NEW  YORK;    3  ,A>fi'  !0.BIBL;5.  I^OUSE. 


ho^ 


^^l^^ 


THE  JOHN  C.  GREEN  FUND  BOOKS. 


This  volume  has  been  prepared  and  issued  under  the  pro- 
visions of  the  John  C.  Green  Income  Fund.  The  Fund  was 
founded  in  1877,  with  the  cordial  concurrence  of  Mrs.  Green, 
by  Robert  Lenox  Kennedy,  on  behalf  of  the  residuary  lega- 
tees of  John  C.  Green.  Among  other  things,  it  is  provided 
by  the  deeds  of  gift  and  of  trust  that  one-sixth  of  the  net 
interest  and  income  of  this  Fund  shalV  be  set  aside  ;  and  when- 
ever the  same  shall  amount  to  one  thousand  dollars,  the 
Board  of  Officers  and  Managers  of  the  American  Sunday- 
School  Union  shall  apply  the  income  "for  the  purpose  of 
aiding  them  in  securing  a  Sunday-school  literature  of  the 
highest  order  of  merit."  This  may  be  done  **  either  by 
procuring  works  upon  a  given  subject  germane  to  the  objects 
of  the  Society,  to  be  written  or  compiled  by  authors  of  estab- 
lished reputation  and  known  ability,  ...  or  by  offering 
premiums  for  manuscripts  suitable  for  publication  by  said 
Union,  in  accordance  with  the  purposes  and  objects  of  its  in- 
stitution, ...  in  such  form  and  manner  as  the  Board  of 
Officers  and  Managers  may  determine." 

The  premium  plan  is  to  be  followed  at  least  once  out  of 
every  three  times. 

It  is  further  required  that  the  manuscripts  procured  under 
this  Fund  shall  become  the  exclusive  property  of  the  American 
Sunday-School  Union,  with  no  charge  for  copyright  to  pur- 
chasers of  the  book,  it  being  the  intention  of  the  Trust  to  re- 
duce the  selling  price  of  wofks  issued  under  the  provisions  of 
the  Fund. 


Copyright, 'C8^8',  by  tbe\A.it)etib$.n^3unday-Scliool  Union. 


(2)        '    -— *^    ^       '         •'     '   ^ 


PUBLISHER'S  PREFACE 


This  work  received  the  prize  of  one  thousand  dollars 
offered  by  The  American  Sunday-School  Union,  under  the 
provisions  of  the  John  C.  Green  Income  Fund.  The  Society 
made  the  offer  of  one  thousand  dollars  as  a  premium  in 
the  following  terms : 

ONE  THOUSAND  DOLLAR  PRIZE 

The  American  Sunday-School  Union  offers  a  premium  of  One  Thou- 
sand Dollars  for  the  best  book,  written  for  the  Society,  upon 

THE  CHBISTJAN  OBLIGATIONS  OF  PBOPeBTr  AND  lABOB. 

Each  writer  will  he  expected  to  suggest  an  appropriate  title  to  his 
work  ;  and  will  be  allowed  the  widest  practicable  freedom  in  the  form 
and  style  of  treatment,  and  in  the  phases  of  the  subject  emphasized.  The 
Society,  however,  expects  writers  to  present  the  Christian  principles  under- 
lying the  general  subject,  free  from  the  prejudice  and  bias  of  current 
Controversies. 

The  book  must  be  popular  in  character,  of  a  "  high  order  of  merit,'* 
and  consist  of  not  less  than  60,000  nor  more  than  100,000  words. 

The  A/SS.  must  be  submitted  to  the  Committee  of  Publication  on  or 
before  November  i,  1887.  Each  A/S.  should  have  a  special  mark,  and 
the  name  and  address  of  the  author  should  be  sent  at  the  same  time  in  a 
sealed  envelope  (not  to  be  opened  until  alter  the  award)  bearing  the  same 
mark,  and  both  addressed,  post  or  express  prepaid,  to  the  American 
Sunday-School  Union,  1 1 22  Chestnut  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

The  A/S.  approved  by  the  Committee  is  to  become  the  exclusive 
property  of  the  Union,  and  the  premium  will  be  paid  when  the  copyright 
of  the  same  is  secured  by  the  Society. 

The  Society  reserves  the  right  to  decline  any  and  all  A/SS.  offered,  if 
unsuitable  for  its  purpose. 

Unaccepted  A/SS.  will  be  returned  to  the  writers  at  their  expense. 

This  premium  is  oflfered  in  accordance  with  the  terms  and  conditions 
of  the  John  C.  Green  Income  Fund. 

THE  AMERICAN   SUNDAY  SCHOOL  UNION, 
1 122  Chestnut  Street. 
Pliiladelphia,  June  30,  1S86. 

(3) 


269506 


y 

4  publisher's   preface. 

As  each  competing  MS.  was  received,  a  record  was  made 
of  its  title,  date  of  reception,  motto  or  private  mark,  and  the 
number  of  words  it  contained.  When  all  the  MSS.  were 
in  (Nov.  2,  1887)  the  examination  was  promptly  begun  by 
the  Committee,  who  found  the  general  excellence  of  nearly 
all  the  MSS.  offered  in  competition  to  be  of  such  a  high  order 
as  seriously  to  increase  their  labors.  After  a  painstaking  and 
conscientious  examination  the  Committee  decided  that  the 
MS.  entitled  "The  Christian  Unity  of  Capital  and  Labor," 
bearing  the  motto,  **  Laborare  est  o?'are,''  was  entitled  to  the 
prize  of  one  thousand  dollars. 

After  the  Committee  had  announced  this  decision,  the 
sealed  envelope  accompanying  the  MS.  was  opened,  and  the 
name  of  the  writer  was  found  to  be  "  Harry  W.  Cadman,  of 
San  Francisco,  California." 

In  the  opinion  of  the  Committee,  the  prize  book  forcibly 
presents  a  brief  history  of  the  labor  problem,  the  present 
wrongs  and  rights  of  the  laboring  classes,  the  rights  of  property, 
and  the  Christian  principles  which  should  harmonize  the 
obligations  springing  from  both  of  these  interests.  It  also 
presents  an  array  of  facts  and  statistics  from  governmental 
and  other  authoritative  sources  which  are  worthy  of  the  at- 
tention of  all  persons  having  any  interest  in  the  great  prob- 
lem of  the  relations  of  property  and  labor. 

iThe  facts  it  presents  are  of  especial  value  in  connection 
with  great  **  strikes,"  and  the  best  methods  of  settling  and 
avoiding  thenv 

JS@*  While  desiring  to  give  the  widest  publicity  to  the 
vigorous  arguments  and  the  various  theories  given  in  these 
pages,  the  American  Sunday-School  Union  wishes  it  to  be 
understood  that  by  publishing  them  the  Society  does  not 
thereby  adopt  all  the  theories  and  opinions  cited  and 
expressed.  They  are  presented  as  a  thoughtful  contribution 
towards  the  solution  of  one  of  the  most  difficult  problems 
of  modern  society. 


CONTENTS  AND  ANALYSIS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

ANCIENT  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS. 

Unrest  a  sign  of  progress — Antiquity  of  Labor  problems — Ineffectual 
attempts  to  solve  them — The  magnificence  of  Ancient  Rome 
founded  on  forced  Labor — Hopeless  condition  of  the  slave  popu- 
lation— Inhumanities  practiced — Roman  contemi^  for  Labor — 
France  before  the  Revolution — Degradation  of  the  peasantry — 
Unjust  exactions — The  French  Revolution  a  Labor  upheaval — 
Ancient  industrial  conditions  modified  by  Christianity  .        .        .     1 1 

CHAPTER   II. 

MODERN   INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS. 

The  era  of  invention — Rise  of  the  Factoiy  system — Its  early  abuses — 
Cruelties  to  the  child-laborer — Indifference  of  public  opinion  and 
the  Church  of  England — Robert  Oweu'a  methods — The  first  Fac- 
tory act — National  awakening — Efforts  of  the  Christian  Socialists 
— Chartism — Application  of  Christianity  to  industrialism — Its  im- 
mediate effect — The  Law  of  Love — The  Factory  system  in  the 
United  States — Its  current  evils — Duty  of  legislators     .         .         .27 

CHAPTER   III. 

PROGRESS. 

Benefits  accruing  from  the  Factory  system — The  constancy  of  prog- 
ress— General  review  of  the  industrial,  economic  and  humanitarian 
advance  of  the  century — Increase  of  commerce  and  wealth  in  the 
United   States — The  gains  of  Labor — In  comfort — And    social 

(6) 


6  CONTENTS   AND   ANALYSIS. 

condition — By  the  cheapening  of  products — Increase  of  wages— 
And  shortening  of  the  working  day — The  reverse  of  the  story — 
Difficulty  of  finding  employment — Effect  of  Labor-saving  machinery 
— The  gain  of  fifty  years— Labor  in  Great  Britain — Increase  of 
wages — Dminution  in  the  hours  of  Labor — Increased  purchasing 
power  of  money — Gain  through  savings — Lessened  mortality — 
Improved  educational  facilities — Decrease  of  illiteracy — Crime — 
And  pauperism — Effect  of  beneficial  legislation— General  Testi- 
mony as  to  the  progress  of  the  working  classes — The  Initial  force 
due  directly  to  Christianity — The  present  time  the  best  the  work- 
ing classes  have  ever  known •        •    43 

CHAPTER  IV. 

UNFAIR    SOCIAL-INDUSTRIAL    CONDITIONS  AND    THEIR 
REMOVAL. 

Irremovable  social  difficulties — Inequality  a  natural  and  Divine  law 
— Its  effects  on  the  acquisition  of  property — Justice  of  a  man's 
claim  to  his  own  earnings — And  for  compensation  for  the  use  of 
his  capital — Labor  not  the  sole  factor  necessary  to  produce  profit — 
The  value  of  administrative  capacity — The  economic  necessity  for 
capitalists — Private  property  a  natural  right — Value  of  Labor  de- 
pendent on  profit — Low  wages  frequently  beyond  employers*  con- 
trol— Removable  social  difficulties — Inherited  wealth— Should  the 
right  of  bequest  be  limited  ? — The  equities  of  the  creator  of  prop- 
erty versus  The  Many — Unfixity  of  apparently  permanent  social 
conditions — The  claim  of  the  child  for  an  inheritance — Pure  sur- 
roundings— A  decent  dwelling — And  a  trade  education — Techni- 
cal education  as  a  solution  for  industrial  problems — Hazardous 
occupations  poorly  compensated — Suggestion  for  national  insur- 
ance— The  example  of  Germany — Corporate  relief  societies — The 
employer's  non-liability  for  accidents  to  his  men — Absence  of 
provisions  for  small  savings — Underpayment — What  the  munici- 
pality can  do  for  the  improvement  of  social  industrial  life — The 
example  of  Birmingham — The  duty  of  the  individual  and  the 
State    ............     69 


CX)NTKNTS   AND   ANALYSIS.  7 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  ETHICS  OF  OWNERSIHP. 

The  duties  of  wealth  clearly  defined  in  the  Bible — But  slowly  ac- 
cepted by  the  rich — The  mission  of  wealth — Its  origin  in  Labor — 
The  power  it  exercises — And  its  tendency  to  foster  selfishness — 
The  silence  of  the  classic  writers  on  the  ethics  of  ownership — 
Comparison  with  Christ's  teachings — The  applicability  of  the  Di- 
vine rules  to  industrialism — Economic  value  of  equity — The  right 
use  of  wealth — Labor  not  a  commodity — Unjust  wages — Their 
effect — Liberality  profitable — Cheap  Labor  not  the  cheapest — The 
obligation  of  mutual  help — Success  not  always  dependent  on 
merit — The  development  of  latent  possibilities — Social  obliga- 
tions and  self-help — Man  versus  the  State — The  widening  func- 
tions of  government — Need  of  self-renunciation — Scriptural  view 
of  the  tramp  question — Wealth's  duty  of  leadership       .         ,         .  lOI 

CHAPTER  VL 

r- 

THE  HELPING  HAND. 

Duty  of  fostering  social-industrial  improvements — Paternal  care  of 
some  European  employers — The  true  science  of  sociology  the  sim- 
ple rule  of  duty — Suggestions  for  help — Capital  a  gainer  by  the 
higher  education  of  Labor — Decay  of  apprenticeship — Need  for 
trade-schools — Handicraft  as  a  preventive  of  crime — Reduction 
pf  the  hours  of  Labor — A  beneficial  influence — Importance  of  en- 
couraging provident  habits  among  workmen — Relief  during  the 
winter  season — Wealth's  contributions  to  charity — The  constant 
necessity  for  mutual  aid I22 

CHAPTER  VII. 

VALUE   FOR  VALUE. 

The  dispute  between  Capital  and  Labor  stated — The  ancient  method 
of  solution — And  its  new  phase  under  Christianity — Its  growing 
importance — The  ethics  of  the  question — Labor  should  be  paid  in 


8  CONTENTS  AND  ANALYSIS. 

proportion  to  the  added  value  it  gives  the  product — Unfair  distri- 
bution of  profits — Why  the  rich  grow  richer — Common  interest  of 
Capital  and  Labor  in  making  profit — The  error  of  treating  Labor 
as  a  commodity — Unfair  reduction  of  women's  earnings — The  ad- 
vantages of  capital  in  the  dispute — The  wage  system  not  the  most 
equitable  method  of  distribution — And  a  better  one  must  be  found 
— Analysis  of  profits  and  earnings  in  stated  industries — Labor  fre- 
quently receives  all  capital  can  aflford — Suggestions  for  the  deter- 
mination of  fair  earnings — Corporations — The  next  step  in 
advance 137 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  UNITY  OF  FORCES. 

Social  cohesion  and  affinity — The  industrial  partnership  of  Labor 
and  Capital — A  benefit  to  both — And  a  solution  of  the  problemr— 
Failure  of  simple  co-operation — From  lack  of  the  capital  factor — 
Co-operative  production  in  France  and  England — The  employed 
their  own  employers — The  co-operative  union — Encourages 
equity — Good  effects  of  joint-stock  ownership — Profit  sharing — M. 
Godin's  "  Familist^re  " — The  success  of  profit-sharing  in  various 
industries — Without  reduction  of  profits  to  capital — Testimony  on 
this  point — The  evolution  of  industry  in  conformity  with  progress  158 

CHAPTER   IX. 

INDUSTRIAL  SOLUTIONS. 

Wage  receivers  must  make  the  most  of  their  earning — By  distribu- 
tive co-operation — Temperance — Refraining  from  early  marriage 
— And  by  provident  habits — Should  add  to  their  capitalized  value 
by  education — And  efficiency — The  competitions  of  unskilled 
labor — Evils  of  juvenile  labor — And  general  employment  of  mar- 
ried women — Continuous  overtime  a  wrong — ^Just  economic  solu- 
tions based  on  Christ's  teachings — The  value  of  arbitration — 
England  and  the  United  States — The  growth  of  materialism  and 
its  influence  on  the  working  classes — Danger  Ahead — Duty  of 


CONTENTS  AND  ANALYSIS.  9 

wealth  in  the  premises — The  uUimate  effects  of  materialism  on 
industrialism IjS 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE  CONSOLIDATION  OF  LABOR. 

Antiquity  of  craft  guilds — Laws  respecting  apprenticeship — Influence 
and  power  during  the  Middle  Ages — Sequestration  of  the  English 
guilds — Points  of  resemblance  to  modern  unions — Their  rise  due 
to  the  factory  system — Attempts  at  repression —The  good  effected  . 
by  unions — In  placing  Capital  and  I^bor  on  a  plane  of  equality — 
Discouraging  strikes — And  preventing  destructive  competition — 
Lack  of  solidity  in  the  United  States — Growing  influence — Well- 
ordered  unions  a  gain  to  capital — Diverse  views  of  their  object — 
Educational  value — Combination  for  industrial  elevation  a  natural 
right — The  Bible  on  fair  payment — The  combinations  of  capital 
coiners — Manufacturers'  association — The  demand  for  fair  wages 
— The  sin  of  cheapening  Labor — Cheap  goods — The  consumer 
must  pay  fair  prices — Summary  of  beneficial  influences  .        .201 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  DUTIES  OF  WAGE  SERVICE. 

More  than  a  letter  fulfilment  of  the  contract  required — The  workman 
must  earn  his  wages — The  decay  of  loyalty — The  bad  side  of  trade 
associations — Foolish  declamations — Socialism — And  its  mistakes 
— Anarchism — Fulfilled  duties  as  social  safeguards — Wrong  of 
creating  an  artificial  uniformity  of  wages,  not  based  on  merit — 
Hostility  to  non-affiliates — The  monopoly  of  Labor — Opposition  to 
apprenticeship — Its  effect  on  trades — Wrong  ideas  of  liberty — 
How  conflicting  interests  can  be  reconciled — Strikes — Their  gen- 
eral futility — Resultant  pecuniary  loss — And  social  disorder — 
Their  increase  an  evidence  of  recklessness — Often  undertaken 
without  due  cause — Yet  sometimes  the  only  recourse  against 
injustice — Christianity  the  protector  of  human  rights      .         .         .  227 


10  CONTENTS   AND  ANALYSIS. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

CHRISTIANITY   AND   LABOR. 

The  adaptability  of  Christianity  to  human  needs — Its  influence  on 
men's  actions — And  bearing  on  their  industrial  relations — The 
Bible  as  a  book  of  work  and  business  and  politics — The  rejection  of 
the  Christian  ethics  by  industrialism — The  Spiritual  power  that  has 
guided  material  progress — What  Labor  owes  to  Christianity — The 
Bible  on  the  Labor  question — Industrial  sociology  the  offspring  of 
Christianity — The  Christian  remedies  for  social  wrongs — Industri- 
alism the  next  fortress  to  be  attacked — The  fulfilment  of  Christian 
duty  a  gain  to  both  Capital  and  Labor — The  true  key  to  the  prob- 
lems of  industrialism 245 


THE 

Christian  Unity 

OF 

Capital  and   Labor 


CHAPTER  I. 

ANCIENT   INDUSTRIAL   CONDITIONS. 

"  The  Lord  will  enter  into  judgment  with  the  ancients  of  his  people, 
and  the  princes  thereof :  for  ye  have  eaten  up  the  vineyard  ;  the  spoil  of 
the  poor  is  in  your  houses.  What  mean  ye  //lat  ye  beat  my  people  to 
pieces,  and  grind  the  faces  of  the  poor?  saith  the  Lord  God  of  hosts." — 
Jsaiah  3  :  14,  15. 

"Any  given  accumulation  of  commercial  wealth  may  be  indicative,  on 
the  one  hand,  of  faithful  industries,  progressive  energies,  and  productive 
ingenuities ;  or,  on  the  other,  it  may  be  indicative  of  mortal  luxury,  mer- 
ciless tyranny,  ruinous  chicane.  Some  treasures  are  heavy  with  human 
tears,  as  an  ill-stored  harvest  with  untimely  rain;  and  some  gold  is 
brighter  in  sunshine  than  it  is  in  substance." — John  Ruskin. 

Every  generation  has  its  peculiar  unrest,  sometimes  no 
more  noticeable  than  the  heaving  of  the  swell  on  a  calm  sea, 
but  at  others,  bursting  into  the  wild  storm  and  fury  of  the 
raging  ocean.  And  as  the  law  of  physical  motion  is  neces- 
sary to  preserve  the  purity  of  the  great  waters,  and  to  build 
up  the  world,  either  by  the  imperceptible  upheaval  of  the 
land,  or  the  more  violent  disturbance  of  the  earthquake,  thus 
making  it  better  fitted  for  the  habitation  of  man,  so  the 
moral,  mental,  religious,  and  even  military  restlessness  of 
mankind  are  the  ceaseless  cause  and  evidence  of  progress, 
fashioning  slowly,  painfully,  but  irresistibly,  the  more  perfect 
body  politic  from  the  material  of  the  family  unit. 

(11) 


12  ANTIQUITY   OF  LABOR  PROBLEMS. 

To  say  that  there  has  always  been  a  labor  problem,  is  but 
another  way  of  declaring  that  from  remotest  antiquity,  even 
before  the  Egyptians  set  taskmasters  over  the  Hebrews  *'  to 
afflict  them  with  their  burdens"  and  make  "  their  lives  bitter 
with  hard  bondage,"  there  has  been  the  inequality  of  master 
and  slave,  riches  and  poverty,  health  and  sickness.  ''The 
gigantic  masses  of  the  Pyramids  tell  us  more  emphatically 
than  living  speech  or  written  words  of  the  tears  and  the  pains, 
the  sufferings  and  miseries  of  a  whole  population  which  was 
condemned  to  erect  these  everlasting  monuments  of  Pharaonic 
vanity."  And  the  wailings  in  Egypt  have  been  repeated  by 
others  in  every  clime,  through  all  ages,  in  continuous  and 
often  vain  protest  against  man's  inhumanity  to  his  weaker 
brother. 

Equally  unavailing  have  been  the  efforts  of  the  deliverers, 
those  who,  stronger  in  consciousness  of  injustice  than  their 
fellows,  would  urge  them  to  resist  the  wrong  and  strike  the 
oppressor.  As  with  Spartacus,  Wat  Tyler,  and  Thomas  Mun- 
zer,  the  leader  of  the  Peasants'  war  in  Germany,  they  only 
shared  the  inevitable  fate  of  all  who  bear  the  sacred  torch  far 
in  advance  of  their  age. 

Nor  in  the  nature  of  things  could  we  have  expected  it  to 
be  otherwise  with  the  Apostles  of  Labor.  The  social  fabric 
had  first  to  be  built  and  its  primitive  conditions  strengthened  ; 
liberty  had  to  broaden  from  apex  to  base ;  from  despotism, 
through  feudalism  and  commerce,  until  it  reached  the  people ; 
political  and  religious  freedom  had  to  be  won,  many  a  marvel 
wrested  from  nature's  secrets,  and  the  business  of  the  race 
measurably  changed  from  fighting  to  manufacturing,  before 
the  masses  of  mankind  could  expect  even  the  rudest  justice 
from  those  above  them.  For  centuries  the  sway  of  might  was 
the  only  one  known.  Right  was  for  those  who  could  take; 
security  for  those  who  could  defend.  The  reciprocal  obliga- 
tions of  society  did  not  extend  beyond  attack  and  defence 
against  common  enemies,  and  though  the  spirit  of  Christian- 
ity soon  accomplished  wonders,  it  took  a  long  time  to  teach 
the  wealthy  and  powerful  that  they  were  of  the  same  blood  as 


ITROTHERHOOD   OF   MAN.  13 

the  poor  and  the  weak.  The  man  who  worked  was  despised  ; 
the  stigma  of  slavery  was  attached  to  every  useful  occupation, 
but  he  who  killed  was  a  hero,  and  there  could  be  no  attention 
to  the  appeal  of  the  worker  while  such  ideas  prevailed.  He 
might  cry  out  and  occasionally  strike ;  but  it  was  a  kicking 
against  the  pricks  that  availed  nothing  except  to  increase  his 
burden  and  double  his  tale  of  labor. 

Rain  comes  in  the  desert  to  those  who  can  wait,  and  the 
time  has  at  last  arrived  when  the  worker  is  heard.  Liberty  is 
now  his  birthright,  and  its  strength  is  vested  in  those  who 
once  vainly  pleaded.  The  man  in  armor  has  gone.  iTlie  in- 
crease of  that  humanity  which  springs  from  the  Gospel  has 
tuned  all  hearts  to  a  responsive  chord.  The  highest  and 
noblest  endeavor  of  the  leaders  of  thought  is  to-day  bent  on 
seeking  the  way  for  a  closer  brotherhood,  a  more  percepti- 
ble blending  between  those  whom  social  conditions  and  injus- 
tice have  too  long  kept  asunder;  and  a  grander  quest  than 
this  was  never  undertaken  by  belted  kniglvQ 

If  they  seek  rightly  they  will  find ;  for  when  those  first 
words  of  "  uncontrollable  authority  and  omnific  power  "  were 
spoken,  "Let  there  be  light,"  it  requires  no  poetic  imagina- 
tion to  clothe  the  divine  command  with  its  largest  meaning. 
Every  revelation  of  the  prophets  and  the  evangelists,  every 
discovery  in  the  material  world,  every  invention,  every  appli- 
cation of  science  has  been  but  the  fulfilment  of  its  behest. 
From  the  beginning  light  has  been  pouring  down  upon  us, 
not  only  in  solar  rays,  but  in  that  divine  knowledge  which 
includes  a  comprehension  of  nature  and  of  nature's  God. 
Galileo  and  Newton  were  its  apostles  as  truly  as  Paul,  Luther 
and  Wesley,  and  it  is  certain  that  the  outpouring  which 
illumined  their  darkness,  that  has  long  since  made  plain  all 
moral  difficulties  and  is  ceaselessly  throwing  its  effulgence  upon 
the  obscurities  of  physical  law,  can  shine  with  equal  clear- 
ness upon  the  darkness  of  our  economic  problems,  making  the 
way  for  their  solution  so  simple  that  all  can  understand. 
Let  us  therefore  look  for  guidance  to  him  who  was  and  is 
."  the  light  of  the  world." 


14  ROMAN   MAGNIFICENCE. 

The  historian  who  takes  a  survey  of  the  condition  of  Eu* 
rope  about  the  commencement  of  the  Christian  era,  finds 
himself  confronted  by  a  power  whose  eagles  dominated  from 
the  Tiber  to  the  Euphrates  on  the  east,  to  the  Thames  on  the 
west,  and  from  the  Elbe  on  the  north,  across  the  Mediterra- 
nean, to  be  stopped  only  by  the  impenetrable  barriers  of  the 
African  deserts.  This  gigantic  empire  comprised  within  its 
boundaries  most  of  the  great  nations  of  the  modern  world. 
Great  Britain,  France,  Germany,  Spain,  Portugal,  Austria- 
Hungary,  Switzerland,  Italy,  and  Greece;  Turkey,  Asia 
Minor  and  Syria,  the  northern  fringe  of  Africa,  and  the 
islands  of  the  Mediterranean,  were  the  provinces  and 
dependencies  of  one  city,  from  whose  gates  went  forth 
armies  of  mighty  conquest,  from  whose  senate  halls  were 
issued  laws  and  decrees  that  have  ever  since  molded  the 
world's  social  and  political  institutions,  whose  literature  and 
material  civilization  have  made  an  impress  on  mankind  for 
all  time,  whose  language  is  a  foundation  of  many  modern 
tongues,  and  whose  contempt  for  labor,  commerce,  and  even 
the  arts  gave  direction  to  opinions  that  only  lost  their 
strength  at  the  close  of  the  i8th  century. 

These  "scourges  and  oppressors  of  the  world,"  as  Buckle 
called  its  citizens,  enriched  their  capital  with  a  magnificence 
of  architecture  that  has  been  and  still  is  the  wonder  and 
admiration  of  the  earth.  On  every  side  were  to  be  seen 
stately  temples  crowded  with  the  statues  of  plundered  Greece, 
palaces  built  of  many-colored  marble  brought  from  the  quar- 
ries of  Numidia  and  Asia  Minor;  public  buildings,  baths, 
libraries,  and  theatres,  decorated  with  all  the  costly  material 
then  known ;  columns  crowned  with  heroic  forms ;  fountains 
that  in  design  were  almost  palaces ;  grottoes  from  which 
gushed  cool  water  brought  in  great  aqueducts  from  the 
mountains;  beautifully  kept  gardens,  woods  and  groves  of 
trees,  and  above  all,  in  boldness,  vastness,  and  splendor,  that 
majestic  amphitheatre  whose  ruins  yet  awaken  the  awe  of 
those  who  behold  them.  "Rome  was  the  centre  of  gravity 
that  drew  to  itself  the  wealth  of  the  whole  world,"  says  the 


ilOMAN   MAGNIFICENCE.  15 

writer  from  whose  work  this  description  has  been  in  part 
outlined.*  "Tiie  metals  of  Britain  and  Spain,  the  silks  of 
China,  the  gems  of  India,  everything  that  was  beautiful  or 
precious  of  marvel  or  rarity  was  poured  into  its  walls,  so  that 
he  who  had  seen  and  tasted  what  Rome  offered  had  seen  and 
tasted  the  world." 

Nor  were  the  residences  of  the  wealthy,  inferior  to  the 
grandeur  of  their  surroundings.  Though  the  externals  were 
plain,  the  only  indication  of  the  owner's  position  being  the 
chained  porter  at  the  doorway,  the  artist  and  painter  lavished 
on  the  interior  all  their  richness  of  material  and  artistic 
wealth,  encrusting  the  walls  with  precious  stones  or  covering 
them  with  bright  garlands  of  painted  flowers,  birds  of  rare 
plumage,  or  graceful  fancies  of  children  and  young  girls,  in 
such  exquisite  designs  that  kings  would  now  delight  to  honor 
the  hand  that  could  reproduce  them.  The  floors  were  of 
inlaid  mosaics  and  the  doors  of  ivory  or  colored  wood,  from 
which  depended  costly  draperies  woven  by  slaves  who  showed 
an  aptitude  for  such  employment.  The  sleeping-rooms  opened 
upon  a  large  court,  on  each  side  of  which  was  a  colonnade 
supported  by  high  marble  columns,  and  between  these  were 
placed  statues  of  marble  and  bronze,  the  work  of  human 
chattels,  while  in  the  centre  a  sunken  basin,  adorned  by 
fountains  and  shrubbery,  added  the  freshness  of  nature  to 
the  beauty  of  art.  A  living  annunciator,  whose  oflfice  is 
better  performed  for  us  by  a  watch  that  can  be  purchased  by 
a  day's  labor,  stood  near  a  sun-dial  at  the  extremity  of  the 
hall  to  repeat  the  hour,  and  other  servitors  waited  behind  the 
richly  inlaid  chairs  and  benches,  or  fanned  the  occupants  of 
downy  couches,  whose  silken  cushions  embroidered  with 
feathers  and  gold  invited  repose.  Tables  of  the  highly 
prized  citrus  wood,  or  marble,  covered  with  striking  bas- 
reliefs,  and  resting  on  carved  silver  tripods,  held  candelabra 
of  beautiful  workmanship,  designed  and  made  by  slaves, 
while  Oriental  tapestries  and  the  skins  of  wild  beasts  spread 

*  "  Greece  and  Rome,  their  Life  and  Art  "  by  Jakob  von  Falke. 


16  ROMAN   MAGNIFICENCE. 

on  the  floor,  and  the  bright  woven  fabrics  of  sumptuous 
material,  that  served  for  shade  and  curtain,  joined  their  rich- 
ness to  a  decoration  as  perfect  in  harmony  as  the  refinement 
of  educated  taste  could  devise. 

But  it  was  in  the  banqueting-room  that  Roman  luxury- 
expended  its  greatest  care.  Here  were  to  be  found  the  most 
beautiful  mosaics  and  paintings,  the  richest  hangings  and 
designs,  the  brightest  colorings,  the  subtlest  chiselings  of 
marble,  the  most  cherished  productions  of  the  craftsmen. 
To  supply  the  dainties  of  a  feast,  the  forest  and  ocean  of 
every  subject  province  paid  its  tribute.  The  oysters  of 
Britain,  the  barbel  of  Corsica,  the  ham  of  Gaul  and  game 
of  Germany,  the  fish  of  the  Atlantic,  the  delicacies  of  India 
and  the  date  of  Egypt  mingled  at  his  table  with  the  hares 
and  venison  of  his  own  Italy,  or  with  the  ducks  and  geese, 
fed  with  figs,  that  were  forwarded  from  his  country  villa;  or 
with  strangely  compounded  dishes  of  native  device,  quaint 
conceits  in  confections,  and  sometimes  with  lampreys,  occa- 
sionally fattened  on  an  offending  slave  to  give  a  special  flavor. 
Wines,  whose  country  and  date  age  had  obliterated,  quaffed 
from  cups  of  amber  or  chased  gold,  and  cooled  with  snow  or 
sweetened  with  honey,  quenched  the  thirst  of  the  guests,  and 
during  the  dinner  beautiful  damsels  scattered  roses  over  them, 
while  Nubians  plied  their  fans;  and  in  the  ante-room,  waiting 
the  signal  to  enter,  toward  the  end  of  the  meal,  were  the 
juggler  with  his  tricks,  the  actor  with  his  latest  productions, 
or  lithe  dark-eyed  Spanish  girls,  who  would  presently  vie 
with  each  other  in  voluptuous  dances  to  the  accompaniment 
of  music.  And  all  these  ministers  of  pleasure  and  ease :  the 
hand  that  could  juggle  so  deftly,  the  actor  whose  dialogues, 
if  preserved,  might  have  been  immortal,  the  musicians  and 
the  dancers,  the  muscles  that  procured,  and  the  skill  that 
prepared  the  dainties,  the  carver  of  the  meat  and  the  treasure 
of  art  in  which  it  was  served,  the  wine  bearer  and  the  flower 
strewers,  were  property,  to  be  bought  and  sold  in  the  market- 
place, scourged,  given  away,  crucified,  destroyed,  without  let 
or  hindrance,  at  the  will  of  the  owner. 


ROMAN  SLAVES.  17 

The  principal  apartments  of  the  house  were  on  the  ground 
floor,  and  in  addition  to  those  mentioned,  comprise(i  the 
sleeping  chambers  family  rooms,  and  baths ;  the  muniment 
rooms  containing  the  family  archives,  wax  portraits,  relics, 
and  images  of  the  houseliold  gods ;  the  libraries  filled  with 
manuscripts  enclosed  in  beech-wood  cases  j  the  master's  room 
where  he  received  his  clients,  transacted  affairs  and  went  over 
accounts  with  his  slave  secretaries,  and  another  of  larger 
dimensions  answering  the  purposes  of  a  modern  drawing-room, 
where  the  mistress  entertained  her  friends,  and  issued  her  edicts 
for  the  household.  The  quarters  for  the  human  cattle  were 
in  the  rear.  A  few  crowded  pens,  and  wretched  fare  were  their 
share  of  the  wealth  around  them  ;  for  slaves  were  plenty — the 
rougher  sort  could  be  bought  in  Asia  for  a  sixpence ;  and  why 
should  they  have  care  when  labor  was  so  cheap  ? 

The  city  house  of  a  wealthy  Roman  contained  hundreds 
of  these  unfortunate  beings  who  were  kept  in  order  by  the 
scourge,  and  had  to  attend  to  their  duties  in  silence.  Every 
room  was  in  charge  of  some  particular  attendant.  The 
kitchen  had  its  cooks,  carvers,  confectioners,  table- waiters, 
and  bakers.  Tailors,  seamstresses,  barbers,  hair-dressers,  per- 
fumers, and  porters,  employed  their  special  skill  for  master 
and  mistress;  and  weavers, sandal-makers,  jewelers,  and  scribes 
were  always  at  work  in  their  various  departments,  so  that  the 
cunning  of  a  thousand  hands  and  minds  were  constantly  min- 
istering from  morning  to  night  to  the  capricious  wants  of  one 
or  two. 

We  are  apt  to  associate  our  ideas  of  Roman  slavery  solely 
with  that  of  a  concpiering  race  subjugating  far-off  barbarians 
in  Britain,  Spain,  Gaul,  and  Africa,  and  while  such  captures 
enormously  recruited  the  Roman  market,  "  all  races  furnishing 
their  contribution  to  the  greatest  population  of  slaves  that  ever 
existed  under  one  domain,"  *  the  servile  classes  were  by  no 

*  Gibbon  estimates  that  ihe  population  of  the  Roman  empire  during 
the  reign  of  Claudius  contained  60,000,000  slaves,  or  as  many  people  as 
now  inhabit  the  United  States.     See  "  The  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Ro- 
man Empire,"  Chapter  2. 
2 


18  ROMAN   SLAVERY. 

means  composed  exclusively  of  captured  enemies  and  their 
descendants.  In  addition  to  the  natural  increase,  some  were 
stolen  from  countries  with  which  the  empire  was  at  peace ; 
others  were  purchased  from  free  parents  in  time  of  distress ; 
and  poor  debtors,  alike  with  criminals,  were  often  sold  into 
perpetual  servitude ;  so  that  during  the  long  period  slavery- 
existed  as  a  national  institution,  it  is  not  surprising  to  find 
that  many  of  the  bondsmen  were  intellectually  superior  to 
their  owners,*^hile  others  had  a  marvellous  skill  in  those 
handicrafts  which  the  Romans  so  much  despised. f  ' 

Slaves  nearly  always  filled  the  positions  "or"  librarians, 
amanuenses,  private  secretaries,  physicians  and  surgeons, 
architects,  builders,  engravers,  painters,  and  silversmiths. 
Good  doctors,  artists,  learned  men,  such  as  poets,  gramma- 
rians, and  rhetoricians  were  regularly  offered  for  sale  in  the 
market  place,  with  a  tablet  fastened  to  the  neck,  indicating 
the  particular  intellectual  achievements  for  which  they  were 
famous,  and  artisans  of  ability,  as  was  the  case  with  our  own 
negro  slaves  in  the  Southern  States,  always  commanded  more 
than  a  common  laborer.  "  They  construct  all  the  great  public 
■works.  They  build  the  splendid  roads  over  which  the  Roman 
legions  follow  their  generals  in  triumph  home  to  Rome.  They 
make  the  aqueducts,  dig  the  canals,  and  construct  the  build- 
ings, public  and  private,  whose  remains  still  attest  their  mag- 
nificence— the  forum,  the  amphitheatre,  and  the  golden  house 
of  the  Caesars.  They  build  the  villas  overlooking  the  Bay  of 
Naples,  in  which  the  nobles  lived  in  riot  and  wantonness; 
they  cook  the  dinners  given  in  those  villas ;  they  make  the 
clothes  the  nobles  wear,  and  the  jewels  that  adorn  their  per- 
sons.    They  cultivate  the  fields,  follow  the  plow,  train  and 


*  Cicero's  manumitted  servant  invented  short-hand,  and  the  teachings 
of  Epictetus,  a  slave  of  one  of  Nero's  couriiers,  are  still  read  with  interest 
for  their  idealistic  morality.  -Another  celebrated  literary  slave  was  Ter- 
ence, the  comic  poet;  and  it  is  probable  that  Plautus  was  also  one.  The 
preceptor  of  Brutus  and  Cassius,  Straberius  Eros,  was  bought  in  the  mar- 
ket place. 

-    f  "  All  mechanics  are  engaged  in  vulgar  business,  for  a  workshop  can 
have  nothing  respectable  about  it."     Cicqxo ,  de  Officiis, 


ROMAN   INHUMANITY.  19 

trim  the  vine,  and  gather  in  the  harvest."  *  Those  who 
showed  any  aptitude  for  intellectual  pursuits  were  often  highly 
educated  in  order  to  increase  their  value  to  their  owners,  and 
the  education  of  the  young  was  entirely  in  their  charge.  They 
were  in  reality  the  pillars  of  the  nation,  the  substructure  on 
which  the  immense  fabric  of  the  empire  was  reared,  and  with- 
out whose  aid,  by  liberation  from  labor,  its  military  supremacy 
would  have  been  impossible. 

-  Over  these  men  whom  we  now  consider  the  pride  and  glory 
of  a  state,  the  master  had  an  absolute  possession.  For  700 
years  he  could  inflict  every  form  of  death,  torture  or  igno- 
minious punishment  that  passion  or  cruel  caprice  might  sug- 
gest without  any  legal  restraint  to  stay  his  despotism  ;  and 
Avhen  after  a  life  of  service  the  bondsman's  powers  began  to 
-fail,  he  could  be  abandoned  to  the  lingering  death  of  starva- 
tion, or  sent  into  the  arena  to  become  the  food  of  ravenous 
beasts,  and  afford  by  the  agony  of  his  dying  moments  an  in- 
,stant's  pleasure  for  the  populace.  Every  page  of  classic  liter- 
ature is  stained  with  such  records  of  merciless  inhumanities, 
related  in  a  manner  that  proves  them  to  have  been  mere 
common-places ;  ordinary  occurrences  of  the  day,  and  only 
noted  for  their  connection  with  some  unusual  incident. 

Ovid  has  drawn  for  us  in  detail  a  Roman  lady  at  her  toilet, 
preparing  for  a  festival,  the  games,  a  promenade,  or  a  social 
visit,  and  Juvenal  f  has  added  to  it  scatheful  mention  of  the 
indifference  with  which  she  regarded  the  sufferings  of  her  tire- 
women who  were  compelled  to  stand  half  stripped  during  the 
elaborate  process  of  embellishment,  so  that  the  torturer  might 
better  lash  while  they  were  brushing  her  hair,  enamelling  her 
face,  or  holding  the  silver  mirror  with  which  she  watched  the 
varied  operations.  A  Roman  lady's  garments  were  usually 
of  silk,  sometimes  dyed  with  the  precious  Tyrian  purple,  or 
in  one  of  the  primal  colors,  and  bordered  with  fringe  of  gold, 
or  pearls  and  embroidery.     They  consisted  of  two  tunics,  the 

*  "  Manual  Training  the  Solution  of  Social  and  Industrial  Problems." 
Charles  H.  Ham,  p.  265. 
f  Sixth  Satire. 


20  ROMAN    FASHIONS. 

under  one  short  and  reaching  only  to  the  knee,  the  upper  one 
descending  in  long  folds  to  the  feet  and  fastened  at  the 
shoulders  with  a  jeweled  brooch.  For  street  costume  another 
garment  was  worn  over  these  clasped  with  a  belt  of  emeralds. 
Her  sandals  were  of  soft  leather,  held  in  place  with  golden 
buckles,  and  the  hair  was  either  crimped  and  permitted  to 
flow  in  rippling  waves,  or  else  intentionally  ruffled  and  con- 
fined with  a  golden  band,  or  string  of  pearls.  Peails,  set  in 
wrought  gold,  were  the  favorite  ear  ornament,  matching  neck- 
laces of  similar  material  and  design,  though  the  emerald  was 
still  more  highly  prized,  but  too  expensive  except  for  those  of 
great  wealth.  On  the  arms  and  wrists  bracelets  of  incompar- 
able workmanship  were  worn,  and  cameo  rings  of  enormous 
cost  encircled  each  finger.  On  occasions  of  display,  the 
modern  value  of  a  Roman  lady's  jewelry  might  exceed  a  mil- 
lion dollars.  It  is  related  that  Caesar  paid  about  ;^232,ooo 
for  a  single  pearl,  and  the  wife  of  Caligula  appeared  at 
her  betrothal  decorated  in  jewelry  valued  at  a  million  and  a 
half  of  dollars. 

As  in  other  portions  of  her  service,  the  dye,  the  robes,  the 
embroidery,  the  setting  of  the  jewelry  were  the  work  of  her 
unpaid  servants,  or  if  their  labor  was  of  such  excellence  as 
to  warrant  a  trifling  favor  in  commendation,  it  was  the  gift 
of  a  tyrant,  to  be  followed  by  blows  and  the  lash.  Her  maids 
were  only  her  automata.  In  them  her  eyes  could  see  neither 
the  grace  of  youth,  the  sweetness  of  womanhood,  nor  the 
sacredness  of  maternity.  Their  wants,  pains,  pleasures,  hopes, 
aspirations,  friendships,  loves ;  all  the  vibrations  of  the  spirit 
within  its  temple,  concerned  her  less  than  the  moods  of  the 
changeful  sky.  They  were  only  beings,  fashioned  indeed 
after  the  pattern  of  humanity,  yet  whose  lives  could  have  no 
other  cause  for  existence  than  to  do  her  will,  to  reflect  her 
desires,  to  be  instruments  for  her  comfort,  and  the  soulless 
ministers  of  her  caprice. 

The  toilet  being  completed,  the  hired  torturer  dismissed, 
and  the  shrinking  girls  despatched  to  other  duties,  their 
mistress   will   step   into   her  waiting   litter,  borne   by  eight 


ROMAN    FASHIONS.  21 

Stalwart  blacks,  preceded  by  other  attendants  to  clear  the 
way  through  the  thronged  streets.  Perhaps  her  destination  is 
the  temple  of  Serapis,  or  to  call  on  some  female  friend,  or 
join  with  the  beauty  and  fashion  of  Rome  in  one  of  the 
many  delightful  gardens  and  parks  which  brought  the  verdure 
of  the  country  into  the  heart  of  the  city ;  or  she  may  prefer 
to  loll  with  languid  indifference  on  her  silken  cushions,  list- 
lessly watching  the  swarming  throng  pass  by,  of  whom  the 
greater  part  are,  in  her  judgment,  not  men  and  women,  but 
such  creatures  as  she  has  left  at  home. 

The  well-known  engraving  of  Boulanger*s  somewhat  me- 
chanical painting  of  "  The  Appian  Way  "  conveys  a  definite 
and  suggestive  impression  of  the  Flamian  Road,  which  ran 
the  whole  length  of  the  Campus  Martius,  and  was  the  most 
conspicuous  thoroughfare  of  Rome.  Rome  was  not  merely  a 
city,  but  the  city  of  the  world.  On  its  streets  were  half  a 
million  of  idlers,  shopping,  talking,  loitering,  drinking, 
discussing  the  political  incidents  of  the  day,  or  the  latest 
news  of  victories  in  Britain  and  Gaul.  **  The  gray-bearded 
Greek  philosopher  jostled  the  sons  of  the  North;  the  Dacian, 
with  his  wide  bracccB,  the  fair-haired  German  clad  in  skins; 
the  black  Nubian  met  the  tattooed  Britain,  and  the  Gaul,  in 
short  tartan  cloak,  brushed  by  the  Arab  of  the  desert,  and 
the  wild  nomad  of  the  Sarmatian  steppe." 

Here  is  a  closely  wedged  crowd  of  litters,  each  one  sur- 
rounded by  quarrelling  slaves  endeavoring  to  force  a  path  for 
their  master  through  the  mass ;  here  a  legionary  is  telling  to 
a  group  the  wonders  he  has  seen  upon  the  Nile,  who  anon 
tiring  of  his  recital  leave  to  look  at  some  new  thing,  may  be 
a  strange  beast  or  bird  sent  by  a  distant  consul  from  the 
confines  of  Asia,  to  swell  the  attractions  of  the  approaching 
games.  Now  comes  a  funeral  accompanied  by  flute  players, 
wailing  women  with  dishevelled  hair,  and  a  band  of  actors, 
reciting  laudatory  pa-ssages  from  the  tragic  poets  in  honor  of 
the  departed  ;  and  this  is  succeeded  by  such  a  motley  throng 
of  slaves  and  freedmen,  chair  carriers,  soldiers,  and  richly 
dressed  youth ;  men  of  wealth,  attended  by  their  obsequious 


22.  KOMAN  AMUSEMENTS. 

clients,  gymnasts,  sword  swallowers,  languid  idlers  and 
itinerant  vendors  calling  their  wares,  that  it  seems  a  never 
ending  panorama;  a  microcosm  of  all  costumes  and  all 
nations. 

Many  are  sauntering  towards  the  baths,  to  enjoy  amid 
rarest  marbles,  paintings,  and  mosaics,  the  mild  exercise  of 
the  gymnasium,  or  the  refinement  of  song  and  music,  to  be 
presently  followed  by  sumptuous  ablutions.  Others  are  mak- 
ing for  the  forum,  to  take  part  in  the  political  meetings,  some 
to  the  courts  of  justice,  and  numbers  to  the  wine  shops,  where 
they  will  throw  dice  for  a  jar  of  Falerian  wine  and  exchange 
the  current  scandal  of  the  hour.  If  these  amusements  are  too 
trivial  there  is  the  Circus  Maximus,  with  seats  for  180,000 
spectators,  and  the  wild  excitement  of  the  chariot  races, 
prefaced  by  a  solemn  procession  of  priests,  as  the  statues  of 
the  gods  are  borne  aloft.  The  charioteers  of  the  Blue  faction 
won  last  week,  and  if  they  can  repeat  the  triumph,  though 
some  will  be  killed  in  doubling  the  Obelisks,  the  victors  are 
to  receive  the  honor  of  silver  crowns. 

It  may  be  a  grand  day  in  the  arena,  and  from  early  morn 
all  Rome  has  been  astir.  A  hundred  slaves,  nay,  we  can  say 
a  thousand  and  not  exaggerate,  with  features,  limbs  and  souls 
like  any  of  us,  "hurt  with  the  same  weapons,  subject  to  the 
same  diseases,  healed  by  the  same  means,  warmed  and  cooled 
by  the  same  winter  and  summer,"  have  been  carefully  trained 
from  childhood,  until  now,  in  the  strength  of  their  years, 
they  shall  slash,  rip,  break  bones,  transfix  and  strangle  each 
other,  with  every  device  of  hideous  weapon,  while  those  who 
have  fed  and  nurtured  them  from  tottering  infancy,  the  old 
senator,  the  young  soldier,  the  tender  maiden,  jest,  woo, 
laugh,  eat,  make  appointments  for  the  night,  and  when  the 
scene  is  over  leave  their  servitors  in  their  gaping  wounds  and 
dying  agony,  without  another  thought,  to  be  the  morrow's 
food  for  the  lions. 

This  is  enough  of  the  story.  It  is  one  of  such  barbarous 
cruelty,  heartlessness,  and  selfishness,  relieved  only  by  a  few 
martial  virtues,  and  the  splendor,  pomp,  and  magnificence 


LABOR  PKOBLEM  IN  FRANCE.  28 

of  wickedness,  that  it  seems,  more  fitting  for  the  tale  of  a 
dream  than  the  daily  drama  of  a  people's  life.  And  were  it 
not  for  the  testimony  of  its  actors,  and  the  evidences  that 
still  survive,  we  might  join  our  doubts  to  our  wishes,  and 
reject  it  as  the  fantasy  of  an  Eastern  imagination,  conceived 
among  the  fumes  of  the  hashish  smoke.  For  the  magnificence 
was  the  magnificence  of  the  sword  and  the  blood  of  labor. 
We  touch  it  with  Ithuriel's  spear,  and  the  mighty  buildings 
dissolve  and  show  us  the  abodes  of  a  million  slaves  and  beg- 
gars ;  the  costly  marbles  change  to  the  groans  of  the  wretched 
captives  in  the  mines ;  the  fabrics  of  luxury  to  the  shrieks  of 
the  tortured  hand-maidens,  and  the  city  itself  into  *' Babylon 
the  Great,  the  mother  of  the  harlots  and  of  the  abominations 
of  the  earth." — (^Rev.  Fer.) 

With  a  change  of  costumes  and  actors,  and  modified  by 
eigliteen  centuries,  how  like  is  this  luxury  and  indifference  to 
suffering,  to  that  of  another  city  on  the  banks  of  the  Seine, 
where  a  Louis  the  Well-Beloved  is  king,  and  a  Du  Barry,  the 
courtesan  of  a  gambling-house,  has  just  succeeded  De  Pom- 
padour as  queen. 

The  king  has  4,000  horses  in  his  stable,  and  295  cooks  are 
scarce  sufficient  to  provide  for  his  royal  palate,  while  in  Nor- 
mandy the  people  are  living,  or  dying,  on  bran.*  His  house- 
hold alone  costs  68,000,000  francs  f  each  year,  being  nearly 
one-fourth  of  the  entire  public  revenue,  mainly  taken  from 
miserable  jjeasants;  and  for  every  franc  thus  expended,  ten 
men  toil,  sweat,  and  are  robbed.  The  princes  of  the  blood 
own  one-seventh  of  the  soil,  and  like  the  nobility  pay  no 
taxes.  In  Champagne,  55  per  cent,  of  the  soil-tillers'  income 
is  seized  for  direct  imposts;  in  some  parishes  as  much  as  71 
per  cent.  Though  marriage  is  declining  in  the  country, 
because  the  women  say  it  is  not  worth  while  to  bring  other 
unfortunates  into  the  world,  the  court  at  Paris  is  a  wild  satur- 
nalia, and  life  with  the  nobility  an  orgy.     They  hunt,  drink, 


*  Taine's  "Ancient  Regime." 

f  This  amount  represented   more  than  double   the  value  of  present 
money. 


24  THE   FRENCH   PEASANTRY. 

feast,  and  hold  revelry,  as  if  those  things  were  the  sum  of 
existence,  and  justice  on  earth  or  after  the  earth,  immortality, 
accountability,  and  God  were  only  myths. 

In  the  provinces  day-laborers  and  mechanics  are  dying  of 
cold,  and  so  great  is  their  stress  that  they  cannot  wait  for  the 
grain  to  ripen,  but  cut  it  green  and  dry  it  in  the  oven  for 
food.  Yet  the  Golden  House  of  Nero  scarcely  equalled  in 
splendor  the  daily  glory  of  Versailles,  or  Nero's  slaves  the 
number  of  its  servitors,  or  Caligula's  courtiers  the  corruption 
and  elegance  of  those  who  surround  its  sovereign. 

It  is  true  that  the  people,  the  peasants,  the  laborers,  the 
artisans,  if  there  can  be  a  people  in  a  land  where*  the  king 
declares  that  he  is  the  state,*  are  beginning  to  show  discon- 
tent with  their  part  of  mere  contributors  to  this  magnificence, 
and  complain  because  their  once  Well-Beloved  speculates  in 
corn  and  occasionally  creates  artificial  famine  to  make  money 
out  of  their  hunger,  bitterly  calling  it  a  famine-pact.  They 
are  not  unwilling  to  be  treated  as  beasts  of  burden  (for  so 
long  has  the  mark  of  the  Roman  impress  survived),  and  har- 
nessed with  oxen  to  draw  wagons,  or  live  in  dwellings  whose 
walls  consist  of  four  posts,  or  clothe  themselves  in  muslin 
rags  with  neither  head  covering  nor  foot  covering,  or  see 
their  little  fields  eaten  up  by  the  Seigneur's  game,  to  kill 
which  would  bring  them  dangerously  near  the  hangman's 
rope.  All  that  matters  not,  for  the  taxes,  dues,  and  tithes, 
each  a  third,  will  of  necessity  leave  them  nothing,  and  starva- 
tion seems  to  be  their  appointed  lot,  their  only  birthright. 
Against  this  devil-merchandising,  however,  they  do  protest, 
and  ere  long,  too,  against  some  other  things,  with  a  vigor 
that  wrenches  the  world.  So  urgent,  however,  is  the  king's 
nee  1  for  money,  notwithstanding  his  famine  gains,  so  liberal 
his  bounty  to  his  gentlemen  in  ordinary  and  extraordinary, 
his  officers,  grand  officers,  pages,  governors,  bed-keepers, 
butlers,  table -waiters,  equerries,  grooms,  captains,  and  other 
leeches  innumerable,  and  especially  to  his  ladies  of  honor 

*  "  L'etat  c'est  moi." 


TTPHEAVAL  IN   FRANCE.  25 

and  dishonor,  that  soon,  despite  of  protest,  the  implacable 
tax  gatherers  begin  to  seize  and  sell  everything,  and  Paris 
swarms  with  those  from  the  country,  who  finding  it  useless  to 
labor,  resolve  to  beg. 

Here  too  there  are  mutterings ;  for  though  the  women  are 
used  to  take  up  their  little  ones,  crushed  three  or  four  hun- 
dred or  more  every  year  by  the  carriages  of  the  rich,  which 
diish  without  warning  or  care  down  the  narrow  streets,  a 
fearful  rumor  has  spread  of  late,  that  other  liquid  than  water 
or  milk  and  of  a  redder  hue  than  wine  fills  their  master's 
bath-tub,  and  at  the  mere  mention  of  his  name  they  run  for 
their  darlings  and  gather  them  as  a  hen  gathers  its  brood 
when  the  hawk  is  nigh. 

The  story  may  or  may  not  have  been  true.  We  know  that 
there  was  every  conceivable  foulness,  every  wrong  that  a  few 
dare  commit  on  the  many,  every  burden  that  wealth  could 
impose  on  labor,  and  it  will  lessen  the  infamy  but  a  hair's 
breadth  if  this  be  false.  That  it  should  have  gained  credence 
at  all  proves  the  shameless  depravity  of  the  age  as  much  as 
any  well-established  fact. 

Presently  the  murmurings  grow  louder,  and  the  people 
standing  at  the  corners  in  their  rags  and  wretchedness,  with 
haggard  faces,  look  askance  at  the  swift  chariots,  as  chained 
and  famished  wolves  might  be  supposed  to  look  when  a  fat 
deer  sprang  by.  One  is  heard  to  say  that  next  year  there  may 
be  a  change  of  places,  he  of  the  gutter  riding,  and  the  rider 
on  foot.  It  is  a  prophetic  remark,  though  anticipating  by  a 
trifle  of  a  decade  or  so  what  is  to  come.  And  the  other  shall 
yet  ride — in  a  tumbril,  to  the  beating  of  drums,  the  dance  of 
the  carmagnole^  and  shouts  of  execration — to  the  guillotine. 
The  time  is  not  yet,  though  very  near.  A  few  more  tears  in 
the  cup  to  fill  it  to  the  brim,  a  few  more  babes  to  die  at  the 
milkless  breasts  of  their  mothers,  a  few  more  to  perish  of  the 
famine  fever,  as  unregarded  (thinks  every  one)  as  rain-drops 
falling  into  Atlantic  waves ;  then  will  God  speak  in  the  earth- 
quake, and  shake  the  nations  with  the  * '  fierceness  of  his 
wrath!'* 


26"  LABOR  AND   CHRISTIANITY. 

Thus  the  last  vast  fragment  of  the  slavery  built  on  the 
Capitoline  hill  is  rent  in  pieces.  Great  masses  still  remain  to 
be  dissolved  by  gentler  action,  and,  in  one  place,  where  it 
still  dams  the  waters  of  progress,  to  be  riven  from  its  founda- 
tion by  another  whirlwind  of  wrath  ;  but  no  more  shall  its 
black  shadow  fall  across  a  continent,  no  more  shall  it  be  writ- 
ten that  toil  is  ignoble,  no  more  shall  the  laborer's  cry  for  bread 
fall  as  unheard  as  the  dropping  of  a  feather  in  an  echoless  hall. 

Chateaubriand  truly  says  that  "  the  regeneration  of  society 
commenced  with  the  proclamation  of  the  Gospel."  When 
labor  was  synonymous  with  slavery  its  despairing  cry  to 
wealth  was,  *Met  me  have  life."  When  Christianity  laid  its 
pitying  touch  on  the  bondsman,  and  smoothed  the  way  to  the 
qualified  slavery  of  serfdom,  the  cry  became,  "give  me  food 
and  shelter.  "\  Now  the  humblest  worker  bears  his  part  in  the 
government  of  the  state,  the  peer  in  all  power  and  equality 
that  law  can  confer,  with  the  heir  )f  rank  and  fortune./ 

As  men  measure  events  it  had  taken  a  long  tmie  to 
accomplish  the  purpose.  To  our  little  lives  it  seems  a  great 
distance  from  the  days  of  the  amphitheatre  to  Augustine's 
noble  declaration,  *'Laborare  est  orare;"  and  a  still  greater 
one  to  that  grander  assertion,  that  "All  men  are  born  with 
equal  rights  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 
Yet  for  eighteen  centuries  a  mighty,  unseen  force  had  been  at 
work.  In  an  obscure  village,  in  a  distant  province  of  the 
empire,  was  born  one  whose  words  and  life  was  to  dissolve 
not  only  the  wrong  of  slavery  and  labor,  but  all  other  wrongs. 
Rome  heard  not  of  his  birth  or  death  till  all  was  fulfilled. 
His  was  an  unknown  name  to  Augustus  and  Tiberius.  But 
the  humility  of  Bethlehem  was  to  be  stronger  than  the  might 
of  the  Caesars,  his  words  more  powerful  than  their  legions, 
and  before  the  sunshine  of  his  love  imperial  Rome  and  all  its 
gods  were  to  melt  away.  |For  his  gospel  of  Justice,  Humanity, 
and  Brotherhood  was  to  possess  the  earth ;  slowly  as  grows  the 
oak,  silently  as  moves  the  avalanche,  and  irresistible  as  the 
power  of  Go(^ 


CHAPTER  II. 

MODERN    INDUSTRIAL   CONDITIONS. 

"  The  rich  and  poor  meet  together,  the  Lord  is  the  maker  of  them 
all." — Prov.  22  :  2. 

"Among  the  works  of  man,  which  human  life  is  rightly  employed  in 
perfecting  and  beautifying,  the  first  in  importance  surely  is  man  himself." 
— yo/in  Stuart  Mill. 

While  one  nation  in  Europe  was  freeing  labor  from  the 
shackles  that  had  been  placed  on  it  by  a  privileged  class,  and 
another  in  America  was  dignifying  the  laborer  by  the  inaugu- 
ration of  a  policy  that  was  to  throw  open  to  him  the  prairies 
and  forests  of  an  unpeopled  continent,  with  the  assurance  of 
a  liberty  possessed  nowhere  else,  there  dawned  on  mankind 
an  era  of  mechanical  invention  which  was  so  coincident  with 
these  other  events  as  to  combine  with  them  to  produce  indus- 
trial developments  without  a  parallel  in  previous  history. 

The  improvements  made  in  the  spinning  jenny  by  Har- 
greaves  in  1767  and  Arkwright  in  1769,  were  followed  in  1774 
by  Watt's  steam-engine,  and  in  1793  by  Whitney's  invention 
of  the  cotton-gin.  In  1804  steam  was  first  successfully  applied 
to  locomotion  on  land,  and  three  years  later  tlie  same  result 
was  attained  by  Fulton  on  water.  The  consequence  of  these 
discoveries  was  the  foundation  of  the  factory  system,  which 
revolutionized  the  industries  of  every  western  nation,  in- 
creased their  volume  to  an  enormous  extent,  and  rendered 
their  distribution  to  distant  consumers  possible. 

Under  this  stimulus  the  units  by  which  every  department 
of  manufactures,  commerce,  and  agriculture  are  measured, 
leaped  rapidly  from  thousands  to  millions,  the  centralization 
of  labor  and  concentration  of  capital  proceeded  with  amaz- 

(27) 


/ 


28  RISE   OF  FACTORY   SYSTEM. 

ing  rapidity;  the  shop  employing  a  few  men  became  the 
factory  with  a  hundred  hands ;  the  village  forge  a  foundry, 
and  the  small  town  noted  for  some  special  industry,  a  maze 
of  machinery.  Spindles  multiplied  spindles,  new  industries 
were  created,  and  a  race  for  wealth  was  started  which  the 
tremendous  outlay  of  the  Napoleonic  wars  still  further  en- 
covraged. 

iThe  industrial  and  social  era  thus  inaugurated  was  not 
merely  the  turning  of  another  page,  or  the  imperceptible 
mingling  of  one  generation's  history  with  the  next.  It  was 
the  commencement  of  a  volume,  the  beginning  of  a  period 
with  a  stronger  line  of  demarcation  than  any  that  had  pre- 
ceded it  since  the  Reformation.  The  long  prevailing  domes- 
tic system  of  labor  was  to  pass  away,  and  a  more  complex 
form  take  its  pi  ace  J^  The  relations  of  employer  and  employed 
were  to  be  changed  from  that  of  fellow-artisans  working  to- 
gether in  the  same  shop,  with  but  little  to  indicate  their 
difference  of  positions,  to  that  of  capitalist  and  wage  earner; 
the  latter,  one  of  a  hundred  cogs  in  a  machine,  in  whose 
welfare  his  former  co-worker  had  for  half  a  century  less  in- 
terest than  in  the  unknown  tribes  of  Central  Africa/  A  few 
years  were  to  remove  the  thoughts  and  knowledge  of  modern 
nations  as  far  from  the  time  of  Washington  and  the  First 
Consul  as  these  were  from  the  age  of  chivalry.  In  its  begin- 
ning it  was  to  solve  the  intricate  laws  of  force,  the  mysteries 
of  chemistry,  and  inany  of  the  secrets  of  physical  life.  It 
was  to  chain  the  elements  to  its  bidding,  conquer  time,  bring 
far  Cathay  and  the  islands  of  the  sea  into  neighborhood  with 
London  and  New  York,  make  highways  of  the  ocean  and 
sever  continents.  It  was  to  broaden  and  revolutionize  the 
political,  social,  and  industrial  relations  alike  of  individuals 
and  nations,  and  so  plumb,  fathom,  and  pierce  the  surface  of 
everything  within  reach  as  to  make  men  compared  with  their 
old  powers  veritable  Titans,  and  for  the  first  time  masters  of 

the  possessions  which  God  had  placed  in  their  keeping. 
'it  cannot  be  a  matter  of  surprise  that  an  energy  sufficient 

to  do  these  things  and  many  more  should  have  brought  with 


ITS  EARLY   ABUSES.  29 

it  unexpected  evils.  Very  few  great  transitions  in  social, 
political,  or  economic  conditions  are  effected  suddenly  and 
I)eaceabl^  '^ntil  society  adapts  itself  to  the  new  order,  there 
is  the  friction  of  war,  suffering,  and  discontent ;  the  resistance 
of  those  who  will  not  conform  to  new  surroundings,  the  ignor- 
ance of  others  who  do  not  understand  them,  and  the  rapacity 
of  many  who  take  advantage  of  that  ignorance,  combine  to 
make  a  sudden  innovation  a  time  of  Avrong.  J  The  first  con- 
structed design  of  a  machine  is  also  generally  clumsy.  It  may 
work  in  accordance  with  its  maker's  intention,  but  the  niceties 
of  adjustment ;  the  perfect  adaptation  of  lever,  wheel,  and 
valve  to  the  motion  sought;  the  minimum  of  consumption 
and  the  maximum  of  mechanical  force,  are  only  attained  by 
repeated  experiments  and  improvements.  It  was  thus  with 
the  early  factory  system.  Abuses  sprang  up  with  its  birth, 
and  while  intricate,  powerful,  and  adapted  to  its  ends  of 
dividing  labor  so  as  to  extract  wonderfully  increased  results; 
it  was  withal,  a  clumsy,  crude,  inhuman,  relentless,  money- 
making  monster ;  doing  its  work  much  better  than  had  ever 
been  done  before,  but  with  a  wasteful  expenditure  that  was 
appalling.  For  the  expenditure  was  not  merely  iron,  coal, 
and  steam,  but  the  bodies  and  souls  of  tender  infancy,  of 
children  snatched  from  the  cradle  to  become  cogs  and  wheels 
for  a  few  months  in  some  huge  building,  and  then  thrown 
away,  worn  out  and  useless.  It  was  the  conversion  of  the 
blood  of  babes  into  capital,  as  the  spider  converts  the  hapless 
insect  caught  in  its  web  into  a  power  that  enables  it  to  spin 
other  nets;  or,  as  the  tiger  by  its  feast  of  flesh  gathers  strength 
for  new  forays. 

A  cold,  bare  recital  of  the  evils  that  were  connected  with 
the  introduction  of  the  new  system  into  England  ;  of  the 
wanton  neglect  shown  by  the  em))loyer  to  his  child-laborer, 
of  his  utter  disregard  for  its  rjatural  rights,  of  his  inhumanity, 
avarice,  and  selfishness,  fills  one  even  now  with  shame  and 
indignation,  as  much  for  the  apathy  that  allowed  it  as  for  the 
oppression.  A  moral  myopia  seems  to  have  afflicted  the 
British  nation;  for  while  it  could  not  see  the  worst  form  of 


30  CRUELTIES   TO   CHILD    LABORERS. 

slavery  in  its  own  midst,  it  was  keenly  alive  to  the  wickedness 
of  slavery  on  its  West  India  plantations,  and  in  the  United 
States.  The  first  reform  parliament  could  emancipate  the 
negroes  on  the  Sugar  Islands,  but  with  reluctance  passed  a 
small  and  ineffectual  measure  for  the  liberation  of  its  own 
people. 

The  discovery  that  children  could  do  the  work  in  many 
branches  of  textile  manufacture  as  well  as  adults,  and  at  a 
money  cost  of  almost  nothing,  was  the  prime  cause  for  more 
than  a  generation  of  the  English  operative's  subsequent 
poverty,  degradation,  and  wretchedness.  Parents  and  legis- 
lators were  ignorant  of  the  economic  law  that  cheaper  labor 
will  always  displace  the  dearer,  and  in  their  anxiety  to  add  to 
wages  by  what  seemed  a  new  source  of  income,  permitted 
themselves  to  be  dispossessed  by  the  tiny  fingers  of  their  own 
babes.  The  consequences  were  that  the  poverty  they  sought 
to  decrease  gradually  became  the  most  abject  destitution,  and 
fierce  adult  rivalry  for  such  work  as  there  was,  reduced  wages 
to  their  lowest  notch.  The  ensuing  train  of  results,  foul  and 
non-sanitary  dwellings,  over-crowding,  intemperance  and 
vice,  were  the  recognized  sequences  of  juvenile  competition, 
so  that  for  the  first  thirty  years  the  factory  system  seemed  to 
have  brought  nothing  but  ill.* 

The  demand  for  children  commenced  and  kept  pace  with 
the  whirling  growth  of  the  spindles.  When  the  adjacent  sup- 
ply was  found  insufficient,  pens  were  established  on  the  banks 
of  the  canals,  into  which  hundreds  of  boys  and  girls  were 
collected,  from  scattered  cottages  and  villages,  the  poorhouse 
and  street,  and  shipped  by  barge  to  feed  the  merciless  mills, 
after  which,  in  the  pathetic  words  of  one  whose  later  life  was 
spent  in  the  service  of  labor,  "  they  never  were  heard  of 
more."f  It  seems  incredible  that  in  Christian  England, 
where  the  church-spire  ascends  from  every  town  and  hamlet, 

*  Mrs.  Browning's  "  The  Cry  of  the  Children  "  was  the  thrilling  appeal 
of  a  woman's  heart  to  the  world,  on  behalf  of  the  victims  of  these  cruel- 
lies. 

f  Henry  K.  Oliver,  of  Massachusetts. 


CRUELTIES  TO  CHILD    LABORERS.  31 

^nd  is  the  central  feature  of  every  landscape,  infants  five 
years  old  were  allowed  to  work  in  the  cotton  factories  from 
five  in  the  morning  until  eight  at  night,  and  that  in  the 
bleaching  works  uncomplaining  little  ones  of  eleven  and 
under  were  kept  continuously  at  labor  during  the  same  hours 
in  a  temperature  of  120°.*  In  the  unhealthy  occupations  of 
pin-making  similar  conditions  prevailed.  Children  often 
walked  twenty  miles  a  day  in  the  performance  of  their  tasks. 
Mothers  who  lived  near  the  cotton  factories  might  be  seen 
taking  their  crying  innocents  to  work  at  dead  of  night.  It 
was  as  if  the  days  of  Herod  had  returned ;  but  the  sword 
used  was  unknown  to  him,  nor  did  he  turn  its  dripping  point 
into  pieces  of  gold.  In  the  adjacent  coal  mines  of  Lancashire 
and  Yorkshire,  where  the  output  had  been  greatly  stimulated 
by  the  consumption  of  the  mills,  juvenile  labor  was  in  equal 
request,  and  the  brutalities  inflicted  on  it  have  been  officially 
stigmatized  as  too  terrible  for  description.  Boys  four  years 
old  were  brought  to  work  wrapped  only  in  their  night-clothes, 
*♦  where  they  had  to  toil  naked,  often  in  mud  and  water, 
dragging  sledge-tubs  by  the  girdle  and  chain,"  f  for  a  longer 
time  than  we  now  permit  strong  men  to  work  in  the  sunshine. 
The  forms  of  women  and  girls  were  crippled  into  every  dis- 
tortion by  the  weights  of  coal  they  had  to  carry,  and  their 
moral  degradation  was  akin  to  their  physical.  It  is  not  sur- 
prising that  as  a  result  of  all  this  the  mortality  became  alarm- 
ing. Half  the  infants  of  Manchester  died  before  three  years 
of  age,  and  in  some  districts  the  death-rate  under  twenty  was 
larger  than  in  other  parts  of  England  under  forty.  In  por- 
tions of  the  counties  named,  the  youthful  population  was 
physically  worn  out  before  manhood,  a  notable  decrease  took 
place  in  the  height  of  adults,  and  the  eflect  began  to  be 
rationally  apparent  in  the  physique  of  the  recruits  who 
offered  themselves  for  the  army  and  navy. 

♦  "The  Condition  of  the  Working  Class  in  England  in  1844,"  by 
Frederick  Engels,  affords  a  vivid  and  undouhtedly  correct  portrayal  of 
the  social  neglect  and  misery  that  hnd  grown  up  with  the  factory  system. 
The  work  has  recently  been  republished. 

■)■  Report  of  ParliamenJary  Committee  of  Inquiry,  1842. 


32  METHODS  OF  iielip:f. 

We  are  told  that  in  heredity  there  is  an  occasional  tendency 
to  revert  to  ancient  types  and  predispositions.  Surely  all  this 
was  a  reversion,  not  merely  to  Rome,  or  Sparta,  but  to  Daho- 
mey, and  a  retrocession  for  which  capital  must  be  adjudged  to 
bear  the  greater  blame  and  the  larger  shame.  It  is  difficult, 
indeed,  to  conceive  how  public  opinion,  the  press,  and  par- 
ticularly the  upper  classes,  who  were  in  no  way  benefited  by 
this  new  slavery,  should  have  permitted  it  to  continue  so  long 
without  decided  protest,  and  it  would  be  still  more  inex- 
plicable why  the  church*  did  not  raise  her  voice  against  it, 
if  we  did  not  know  how  negligently  she  has  sometimes  dis- 
charged her  office.  As  Maurice  wrote  at  a  later  date,  the 
church  had  for  a  long  time  been  looking  upon  herself 
** merely  as  a  witness  for  the  principles  of  property,"  and 
from  this  neglect  sprang  that  alienation  between  the  Church 
of  England  and  the  town  laborer  which  is  not  yet  entirely 
removed.  Thanks,  however,  to  that  faith  which  if  only  a 
name  to  some,  is  a  vital  impulse  to  others,  there  were  not 
wanting  witnesses  to  denounce  these  infamies  from  the  begin- 
ning, and  though  it  was  difficult  to  arouse  the  nation  to  a 
right  comprehension  of  them,  that  also  came  at  last. 

One  man,  Robert  Owen,  as  early  as  1799  tried  to  apply  the 
principles  of  Christianity  to  the  relations  of  capital  and  labor. 
Having  purchased  the  first  cotton  mills  erected  by  Arkwright 
on  the  Clyde,  he  at  once  'commenced  to  discountenance  the 
employment  of  children,  to  improve  the  homes  of  his  work- 
ers, check  drunkenness  and  immorality,  open  schools,  dis- 
tribute provisions  at  cost  price,  provide  insurance  funds 
against  old  age,  and  generally  by  every  means  in  his  power 
endeavored  to  elevate  the  social  condition  of  his  operatives. 

The  results  attained  were  such  as  to  attract  the  attention 
of  the  world,  and  political  economists,  philanthropists,  and 
even  the  heir  to  the  throne  of  Russia,  made  pilgrimages  to 

*  The  reference  in  this  connection  is  to  the  Church  of  England,  The 
dissenting  bodies,  and  especially  the  Wesleyan  Methodists,  have  always 
been  in  closer  sympathy  with  the  laboring  classes  than  the  established 
church. 


THE  FIRST  FACTORY   ACT.  83 

Lanarkshire  in  order  to  study  his  methods.  They  found  about 
2000  people  living  in  sobriety,  contentment,  and  morality, 
while  ll)e  neighboring  mills  were  centres  of  intemperance  and 
vitiation.  They  saw  500  children,  brought  by  Owen's  pre- 
decessors from  the  unpromising  atmosphere  of  the  "Edinburgh 
and  Glasgow  poorhouses,  being  instructed  in  the  rudiments 
of  knowledge,  growing  up  in  grace,  health,  and  purity;  and 
they  returned  to  wonder  what  new  moral  law  this  man  had 
discovered  that  enabled  him  to  do  such  things.  They  need 
not  have  marvelled,  for  it  was  as  old  as  the  words  of  Christ, 
**Love  one  another."  He  believed  that  the  spirit  of  this 
commandment  was  sufficient  to  eradicate  all  vice,  crime  and 
evil  passion ;  that  it  was  the  one  and  only  influence  needed 
for  the  government  of  mankind  ;  that  from  birth  to  death 
none  other  was  necessary;  and  he  may  have  been  right. 
Right  or  wrong,  his  rule  during  a  quarter  of  a  century  was  a 
striking  success,  with  an  effect  for  good  that  cannot  be  meas- 
ured. As  the  father  of  co-operation,  the  founder  of  infant 
schools  \\\  Great  Britain,  and  the  author  of  the  first  factory 
act,  Robert  Owen  planted  the  seed  of  ameliorating  influences 
that  have  borne  glorious  fruit,  and  his  name  will  always  shine 
in  the  grand  list  of  those  who  have  loved  their  fellow-men. 

The  factory  act  of  which  mention ns  here  made  was  passed 
in  1819,  through  Owen's  personal  appeals  to  the  Government, 
but  was  so  restricted  in  its  application  and  limited  in  its  scope 
as  to  be  barren  of  practical  good.  In  the  words  of  Lord 
Shaftesbury,  *'  the  great  movement  which  souglu  the  reduction 
of  the  hours  of  labor  did  not  begin  till  1830."  A  strong 
sentiment  of  opposition  to  factory  inhumanity  had  been  grow- 
ing for  some  time,  yet  legislators  were  afraid  to  interfere  lest 
they  should  drive  trade  from  the  country,  affect  sujjply  and 
demand,  curtail  the  rights  of  cai)ital,  and  otherwise  injure 
sundry  economic  myths  that  had  been  accepted  as  truths  from 
the  time  of  Adam  Smith  to  Ricardo. 

Such  a  state  of  things,  however,  could  not  continue  much 
longer  without  shaming  the  national  conscience.  The  neces- 
sity for  state  intervention  was  too  obvious,  the  "cry  of  the 
3 


S4  NATIONAL   AWAKENING. 

children*'  too  loud  to  be  repressed  by  the  obsolete  disserta- 
tions of  old  writers,  on  an  old  order  of  things,  and  in  1833 
an  act  was  passed  which  restricted  the  employment  of  young 
persons  in  a  limited  number  of  industries.  This  was  the  first 
installment  of  the  ten-hour  movement,  and  the  commence- 
ment of  that  Christian  legislation  which  has  been  such  a 
powerful  lever  in  raising  the  strata  of  labor  from  depths  im- 
measurable, and  which  has  done  more  for  the  workingman 
than  all  previous  laws  passed  from  the  time  of  Justinian  to 
George  IV.  j  It  is  also  memorable  as  being  the  first  distinctive 
recognition  m  England  of  the  moral  obligations  of  capital  to 
labor,  and  this  the  more  so  because  it  was  enforced  on  capital 
by  a  parliament  of  capitalists^/ 

But  while  lawmakers  were  arguing,  the  weeds  of  neglect  had 
been  springing  up  very  rapidly,  for  they  will  not  wait  on  in- 
action. Cities  and  towns  were  a  mass  of  pauperism.  (De- 
gradation and  intemperance  were  stamping  themselves  as 
national  characteristics  on  the  operative,  and  it  looked  as  if 
his  share  in  the  age  of  steam  was  to  be  a  weary  s^ervitude  to 
machinery,  far  more  hopeless  and  depressing  from  its  artificial 
surroundings  than  the  open  air  slavery  of  other  lands ;  this, 
or  the  old  alternative  of  the  old  appeal,  which  unbearable 
wrong  always  evokes,  t   , 

The  coherence  ofniat  intricate  social  organization  termed 
in  its  unity,  a  nation,  has  been  effected  in  various  ages  by  all 
kinds  of  force.  Some  have  been  welded  by  the  hammer  of 
war  as  the  hammer  of  steam  joins  separate  pieces  of  iron  into 
a  mass ;  some  have  been  kept  from  flying  asunder  by  the  cir- 
cumference of  waters  and  circumscription  of  mountains. 
Others  have  been  held  together  by  national  consanguinity, 
and  community  of  interest  and  pursuit  jybut  a  few  men  were 
now  about  to  bring  into  play  on  a  large  scale,  not  a  new  but 
a  neglected  power,  tlial  power  of  love  on  which  Owen  so 
strongly  insisted,  and  which  wlTehever  tried  has  been  found 
as  attractive  and  cohesive  in  the  moral  world  as  gravitation  in 
the  physical,  and  able  to  bind  and  blend  the  extremes  of 
class  in  one  harmonious  whole,  | 


EFFORTS  t)F  CHRISTIAN   MEN.  86 

The  leader  in  this  great  attempt  was  Charles  Kingsley,  and 
he  struck  its  key-note  when  he  wrote,  "  the  Bible  demands 
for  the  poor  as  much,  and  more,  than  they  demand  for  them- 
selves; it  expresses  the  deepest  yearnings  of  the  poor  man's 
heart  far  more  nobly,  more  searchingly,  more  daringly,  more 
eloquently  than  any  modern  orator  has  done,  ...  it  is  the 
thouglit  that  runs  through  the  whole  Bible,  justice  from  God 
to  those  whom  men  oppress,  glory  from  God  to  those  whom 
men  despise."  * 

To  this  chord  his  whole  soul  vibrated,  and  others  quickly 
gathered  round  him  with  whom  it  was  also  in  unison.  From 
the  bosom  of  that  church  whose  unconcern  for  the  wrongs  of 
the  humbler  classes  had  been  its  long  reproach  came  Frederick 
Denison  Maurice,  Archdeacons  Hare  and  Whateley,  and  at  a 
later  time  Dean  Stanley.  Thomas  Hughes,  Arthur  Helps,  a 
John  Malcolm  Ludlow,  George  Anthony  Froude,  and  others  ^^■^^ 
with  whose  names  this  generation  is  less  familiar,  joined 
Kingsley  in  instant  sympathy  and  added  their  voices  to  his 
in  proclaiming  that  "  all  systems  of  society  which  favor  the 
accumulation  of  capital  in  a  few  hands,  which  oust  the  masses 
from  the  soil  which  their  forefathers  possessed  of  old,  which 
reduce  them  to  the  state  of  serfs  and  day  laborers,  living  on 
wages  and  alms,  which  crush  them  down  with  debt  and  in 
any  wise  degrade  and  enslave  them,  and  deny  them  a  per- 
manent stake  in  the  Commonwealth,  are  contrary  to  the  king- 
dom of  God."  f 

Nor  were  they  any  too  soon.  It  was  a  year  of  ferment, 
**an  anxious  critical  time  in  modern  English  history,  but 


*  Article  in  "  Politics  for  the  People,"  May  21,  1848. 

t  "  The  Message  of  the  Church  to  the  Laborinjjman."  A  sermon  de- 
livered by  Charles  Kingsley,  in  1 851,  from  Luke  4  :  18-21.  The  con- 
cluding portion  of  this  magnificent  denunciation  was,  "  Woe  unto  you 
t'lat  add  house  to  house  and  field  to  field,  till  there  be  no  more  room  left. 
Woe  unto  you  that  are  full,  for  you  have  received  your  consolation  already. 
Woe  unto  you  who  make  a  few  rich  to  make  many  poor.  Woe  unto  you 
that  make  merchandise  out  of  the  needs  of  your  brother."  The  effect 
was  electrical,  and  the  congregation  with  difficulty  restrained  itself  from 
oi>en  approval. 


/ 


AGITATION    OF   CHARTISM. 


above  all  in  the  history  of  the  working  classes."  English 
discontent  had  culminated  in  the  widespread  agitation  of 
Chartism  ;  Paris  and  Berlin  were  in  actual  revolt,  and  London 
showed  all  the  signs  of  an  approaching  storm.  The  Duke  of 
Wellington  had  filled  the  metropolis  with  troops  for  its 
defence,  and  the  government  strengthened  the  military- 
power  by  enrolling  all  the  upper  and  middle  classes  as 
special  constables.  Business  was  suspended  throughout  the 
kingdom,  a  general  alarm  prevailed  and  the  crisis  of  the  great 
Chartist  meeting  onKennington  Common  was  awaited  with 
imconcealed  forebodings.  (Sir.  Kingsley  shared  in  the  fear, 
but  from  a  different  cause.  He  knew  that  the  national  dis- 
content was  the  natural  expression  of  great  social  wrongs, 
though  crudely  stated,  and  seeking  remedies  which,  however 
just  in  themselves,  were  not  applicable  to  the  end  sought. 
He  knew  it  was  a  movement  that  under  evil  influences  had 
immense  possibilities  for  harm,  and  all  his  efforts  were  bent 
to  give  it  proper  direction  by  means  of  counsel  and  of  burning 
Christian  sympatlr^ 

On  the  night  after  the  great  meeting  he  wrote  to  his  wife, 
*'  I  see  the  blue  sky  again  and  my  Father's  face  ;  "  for  God 
had  guided  him  to  open  his  mouth  and  speak  boldly.  The 
words  that  he  spoke  was  that  celebrated  address  to  the 
*•  Workmen  of  England,"  which  did  more  to  appease  the 
angry  multitude  and  save  the  country  from  turmoil  and 
insurrection  than  all  the  martial  forethought  of  the  hero  of 
Waterloo.  It  was  the  turning-point  in  the  condition  of  laboi, 
the  beginning  of  a  peaceable  revolution  in  the  interest  of 
toilers  everywhere,  the  deposition  of  the  sword,  and  the  ele- 
vation of  the  loving  power  of  Christ. 

Kingsley,  Maurice,  and  their  co-laborers,  amongst  whom 
were  some  of  the  most  prominent  Chartist  leaders  won  over, 
now  put  forth  all  their  strength  to  let  the  general  public  have 
a  better  knowledge  of  the  shocking  conditions  under  which 
the  poor  lived  and  toiled  in  the  large  cities,  and  they  were 
greatly  aided  ,therettrb-y  the  timely  appearance  in  The  Morning 
Chronicle  of  !a  series  of  articles  on  ''  London  Labor  and  Lon- 


APPLICATION  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  87 

don  Poor."*  *'This,"  writes  Mr.  Hughes  in  his  preface  to 
*' Alton  Locke,"  "startled  the  well-to-do  classes  out  of  their  .' 
jubilant  and  scornful  attitude,  and  disclosed  a  state  of  things 
which  made  all  fair-minded  people  wonder.")  Tliere  was  1^%}^^  ^ 
hesitation  now  in  admitting  that  labor  had  been  wronged  l^y  ry*/^ 
capital,  and  that  such  an  accumulation  of  poverty  was  a  dis- 
grace to  civilization.  The  eyes^  of  those  who  cared  to  see 
were  opened,  and  the  indifferentism  of  Dives  in  the  drawing- 
room  to  the  wretchedness  of  Lazarus  in  the  workshop  was 
about  to  cease,  let  us  hope  forever.  Christian  England  took 
off  its  coat  and,  in  and  out  of  parliament,  bravely  tried  to 
bridge  the  gulf  between  wealth  and  poverty.  The*  church, 
completely  aroused  from  its  dormancy,  joined  with  society  at 
large  in  hastening  the  progress  of  Christian  legislation  and 
the  consolidation  of  the  social  fabric,  and  even  the  employer 
began  to  see  that  he  would  not  be  a  loser  by  those  compre- 
hensive reforms  which  were  intended  to  smooth  the  rugged 
path  of  his  worker.  This  movement  was  the  first  that  had 
been  taken  by  one  of  the  factors  of  industrialism  in  the  ful- 
filment of  its  ordinary  obligations  to  the  other,  since  the 
inauguration  of  the  factory  regime ;  and  although  a  tre- 
mendous distance  still  separated  the  two  great  forces  of  pro- 
duction, they  commenced  thenceforth  to  draw  nearerPwith  a 
dawning  perception  of  mutual  need,  a  common  purpose,  and 
ultimate  unity.J 

**If  you  suffer  the  poor  to  grow  up  as  animals,"  Danton 
said,  "they  may  chance  to  become  wild  beasts  and  rend 
you."  Wiser  than  the  generation  of  1789,  England  dis- 
covered this,  and  compelled  her  factory  kings  to  curb  their 
race  for  wealth  at  the  expense  of  humanity.  The  general 
application  of  Christian  principles   to  industrialism  was,  at 


*  Afterwards  republished  by  its  aulhor,  Mr.  Mayhew,  under  this  well- 
known  tille. 

,  An  exceedingly  graphic  article  on  "The  Christian  Socialist,"  by 
Edwin  A,  Seligman,  Ph.  D.,  appeared  in  the  Political  Science  Qtiartfrly 
of  June,  1886,  and  will  give  the  reader  who  desires  it  further  inioraiation 
on  the  movement  inaugurated  by  Kingsley  and  Maurice. 


/ 

38  ITS  IMMEDIATE   EFFECTS. 

that  time,  revealed  to  but  a  few ;  yet  the  true  deduction  to  be 
read  from  the  experience  of  the  factory  laws  was  rightly  made 
by  nearly  all  soon  after  their  passage,  and  there  was  but  little 
dissent  from  the  opinion  that,  while  in  seeming  violation  of 
social  economy,  they  had  subserved  the  welfare  of  the  com- 
munity, without  injuring  the  rights  of  capital,  disturbing  the 
functions  of  industry,  or  curtailing  the  liberties  of  the  indi- 
vidual. > 

Before  concluding  this  necessarily  brief  synopsis  of  that 
class  injustice  which  became  so  painfully  acute  during  the  rise 
of  the  manufacturing  system,  and  of  the  remedies  taken  for 
its  removal,  it  is  important  to  dwell  for  a  little  while  upon 
two  points  that  must  have  suggested  themselves  to  the  swiftest 
reader.     They  are : 

{First.  That  the  conditions  of  labor  have  been  improved 
since  the  French  Revolution,  not  by  the  earthquake  of 
anarchy  and  the  destruction  of  organic  foundations,  but  by 
the  comparatively  silent  exercise  of  the  ethical  forces  inherent 
in  Christianity.\ 

iSecond.  TTiat  those  under  whose  direction  this  force  was 
used  were  Christian  men,  believing  in  a  Divine  Revelation 
and  its  efficacy  for  all  human  needsJ 

There  have  been  many  times  in  many  countries  since  the 
great  overthrow  of  privilege  when  the  wrongs  of  the  masses, 
looking  at  those  wrongs  from  the  standpoint  of  to-day's 
moral  altitude,  seemed  sufficient  to  warrant  a  recourse  to  the 
old  method  of  remedy.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  they 
should  also  be  viewed  in  the  light  of  progression,  that  little 
more  than  a  hundred  years  ago  serfdom  was  an  actuality  even 
in  Scotland,  as  well  as  in  Germany  and  Russia,  and  that  in  the 
early  years  of  the  century  labor  was  only  bursting  from  its 
thrall.  Christianity  had  first  to  prepare  the  ground  and  then 
water  the  seed.  Her  mission  has  not  only  been  constructive, 
but  destructive.  She  had  to  drain  the  foul  marshes,  level  the 
mountains,  fill  up  the  chasms,  and  bridge  the  rivers  of  the 
moral  world  before  it  could  be  beautified.  Having  done  this 
we  now  begin  to  see  her  flowers,  recline  in  her  resting-places, 


ITS   IMMEDIATE   EFFECTS.  8^ 

and  behold  in  her  landscapes  an  expanse  of  sunshine  and  joy. 
One  of  her  brightest  flowers  is  liberty  within  the  law,  and 
through  it  a  revolution,  as  vast  as  that  wrought  by  the  French 
Storm  of  Terror,  has  been  accomplished.  No  smoking  towns 
and  trampled  plains  marked  its  advance,  no  battle-fields  are 
named  after  its  victories,  and  no  proud  columns  or  heroic 
statues  record  its  gentle  conquests.  Yet  we  have  but  to  look 
around  to  see  how  the  mighty  have  been  put  down,  and 
"them  of  low  degree"  exalted  by  a  force  which  is  as  ever 
present  in  morals  as  electricity  in  physics. 

Here  is  a  lesson  that  those  who  toil  for  wages  may  take  to 
heart  for  direction  and  encouragement.  The  time  of  the 
sword  is  over,  the  hour  of  reason  has  come,  and  if  they  who 
tliink  they  are  wronged  ask  reasonably;  who  dare  refuse? 
When  Charles  Kingsley  said,  "  the  business  for  which  God 
sends  a  Christian  priest  in  a  Christian  nation  is,  to  preach 
freedom,  equality,  and  brotherhood  in  the  fullest,  deepest, 
widest  meaning  of  those  great  words,"  he  stated  an  almost 
forgotten  truth.  But  the  long  line  of  men  and  women  who 
have  believed  that  "  the  religious  sentiment  is  the  best  means 
of  reconciling  and  uniting  together  the  rich  and  the  poor,"  * 
commencing  in  modern  times  with  John  Wesley,  and  extend- 
ing from  him  through  John  Howard,  Elizabeth  Fry,  Robert 
Owen,  Lord  Shaftesbury, I  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  George 
Peabody,  Josiah  Mason,  Peter  Cooper,  Kingsley,  Maurice, 
Dean  Stanley,  and  many  others,  down  to  those  who  are  yet 
with  us,  forms  a  chain  of  glorious  strength  and  an  unanswer- 
able  testimony  to  the  religion  they  have  practised.]  They 
have  all  been  believers  in  that  divine  law  of  sympathy  which 
is  the  essence  of  the  spirit  of  Christ.  As  we  have  seen,  a  few 
strong  in  their  confidence  that  not  property  relations  solely, 
but  human  relations  combined  with  property  relations  should 


*  M.  Michael  Gievalier. 

f  Lord  Shaftesbury,  to  whom  the  Duke  of  Argyle  declared  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  the  social  reforms  of  the  last  half  century,  in  England,  were 
mainly  due,  repeatedly  said  that  the  impulse  on  his  own  part  was  entirely 
a  religious  one. 


40  FACTORY   SYSTEM   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

be  the  link  between  the  employer  and  his  workman,  were  able 
to  kindle  into  a  living  flame  the  cold  embers  of  formalism 
that  had  so  long  passed  for  Christianity.  They  showed  that 
the  teachings  of  him  whom  they  served  were  potent  to  weld 
into  brotherhood  and  take  the  sting  from_opiiression.  The 
separation  between  capital  and  labor  has  never  been  so  wide 
apart  under  modern  industrial  conditions  as  when  they  en- 
tered on  their  task.  What  they  did  can  be  done  again,  what 
they  accomplished  at  a  critical  period  for  labor  and  their 
country,  can  be  accomplished  by  the  same  means  to-day, 
wherever  wealth  and  the  worker  are  in  antagonism,  here  and 
everywhere.  The  only  requirement  is  that  hand  in  hand  with 
all  economic  laws,  and  all  efforts  to  bring  together  those  who 
have  money  and  those  who  have  the  strength  of  their  body, 
must  be  the  law  of  love  ;  for  therein  is  the  solution  of  all 
problems,  the  disentangling  of  all  difficulties,  the  removal  of 
all  wrongs,  y 

The  illustrations  and  references  in  this  chapter  have  been 
drawn  almost  exclusively  from  England  because  the  system  to 
which  it  relates  had  its  origin  and  development  there.  The 
externals  of  labor  in  the  United  States  have  been  essentially 
different,  and  in  transplanting  the  factory  system,  as  did  other 
nations,  from  the  place  of  its  birth,  it  is  not  to  our  credit  tiiat 
we  brought  its  evils  along,  and  suffered  them  to  become  accli- 
matized. If  an  excuse  can  be  made  for  the  mother  country, 
it  is  that  until  1815  all  her  energies  were  concentrated  on  the 
deadly  struggle  with  Napoleon,  and  she  had  none  to  spare  for 
domestic  reform.  In  addition,  the  oldest  constituted  society 
in  the  world  had  to  adjust  itself  to  the  age  of  steam.  Its 
ability  to  do  so  with  such  flexibility  is  a  strong  proof  that  the 
constituent  elements  were  sound,  and  that,  if  need  be,  the 
United  States  and  every  other  country  where  modern  indus- 
trial methods  prevail,  can  again  readily  adapt  themselves  to 
such  other  advances  in  mechanism  or  sociology  as  the  future 
may  have  in  store.  But  any  excuse  that  may  be  found  for 
England  will  not  avail  in  our  case,  and  it  is  discouraging  to 
see  that  in  a  new  land,  free  from  the  precedents  established 


ITS  CURRENT  KVUJB,  41 

by  centuries  of  imhistrial  competition  and  feudal  privileges, 
and  where  labor  is  supposed  to  be  the  first  concern  of  the 
state,  we  are  in  some  things  not  yet  abreast  of  the  humane 
legislation  of  foreign  countries.  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright  says 
tiiat  in  the  textile  industries  the  ten-hour  system  is  a  modern 
innovation  as  yet  adopted  only  in  Massachusetts,  so  far  as 
America  is  concerned,*  and  it  was  not  until  1886  that  the 
great  state  of  New  York  enacted  a  law  sufficiently  compre- 
hensive in  its  scope  to  cover  all  manufacturing  establishments. 

A  **  thread  of  misery  runs  through  the  whole  manufiicturing 
system  of  the  time,"  writes  a  Roman  Catholic  clergyman  in 
a  very  forcible  article f  arraigning  the  prevalent  long  hours 
of  labor.  "The  iron  interests  get  in  many  districts  twelve 
full  hours  from  each  man  daily.  The  paper  manufacturers 
get  the  same  from  their  machine-men.  The  obscure  towns 
and  the  obscure  factories  squeeze  their  work-people  as  an 
orange  might  be  squeezed — flat,  and  to  add  to  the  whole  pic- 
ture the  last  touch  of  wretchedness,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  not  alone  are  strong,  healthy  men  called  on  to  endure 
these  things,  but  women  and  children  are  subject  to  the  same 
unnecessary  hardships." 

That  such  a  statement  should  have  more  than  the  coloring 
of  truth  is  an  unflattering  commentary  on  our  civilization, 
and  places  a  weapon  in  the  hands  of  its  enemies  that  is  used 
to  the  utmost.  A  few  such  facts  well  dilated  upon  are  as 
pestilential  breeders  of  Internationalism  and  other  forms  of 
discontent  as  an  undrained  marsh  of  miasma,  and  they  should 
be  removed  for  the  good  of  the  body  politic,  as  lowlands  are 
made  healthful  for  the  sake  of  the  physical  body.  In  other 
matters  our  labor  legislation,  though  occasionally  wise  and 
thoughtful,  has  not  kept  pace  with  that  of  Great  Britain  and 
Germany.  J  Mr.  Ruskin  once  asked  ^'  whether  among  national 
manufactures  that  of  souls  of  a  good  quality  may  not  at  least 


*  Statistics  of  Labor.  Mass.,  1885,  p.  166. 

f  The  Rev.  J.  Tallx)t  Smith  in    VV/e  Catholic  WorU,  Dec,  1886. 
%  For  Synopsis  of  Labor  Le^^islatioM  in  the  United  States  see  "  First 
Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor,"  March,  1886. 


42  DUTY    OF   LEGISLATORS. 

turn  out  a  quite  leadingly  lucrative  one?"  \  And  as  that  is  no 
longer  open  to  question,  the  first  essential  of  a  good  soul 
should  be  provided  for  by  liaving  a  good  body.  Nature 
designed  that  the  body's  guest  should  have  a  fair  housing, 
and  to  carry  out  the  intention  there  must  be  plenty  of  oppor- 
tunity for  recuperation  and  repair,  j  With  faculties  strained 
to  the  utmost,  during  an  excessively  lengthened,  laborious 
day,  this  becomes  an  impossibility,  and  soul  and  body  suffer 
alike.  \  If,  therefore,  we  would  manufacture  good  souls,  one 
of  the  best  ways  of  proceeding  is  by  attention  to  the  physical 
man  and  removing  his  removable  disabilities.  Congress  and 
the  state  legislatures  appear  to  have  forgotten  of  late  that 
the  majority  of  their  constituents  are  working  men  and 
women,  earning  wages,  and  not  hirers  of  labor.  .  It  has  been 
too  much  the  policy  to  assume  that  working  people  can  take 
care  of  themselves,  and  law  makers  have  not  been  anxious  to 
be  reminded  of  the  truth,  that  wealth  is  as  potent  as  universal 
suffrage.  Thus  the  very  functions  of  our  institutions  have 
been  lost  sight  of,  and  the  'Unalienable  rights"  on  which 
they  were  founded  have  been  obscured  and  eclipsed  by  a 
coercive  that  has  taken  the  place  of  the  iron  sceptre,  wealth 
seeking  selfish  increasQj  One  year  of  just  enactment  could 
change  all  this,  but  until  our  labor  legislation  is  at  least  on  a 
plane  with  that  of  foreign  countries,  it  cannot  be  truly  said 
that  this  is  **a  government  of  the  people,  for  the  people,  by 
the  people." 


CHAPTER   III. 

PROGRESS. 

"  Surely  T  will  no  more  give  thy  corn  to  be  meat  for  thine  enemies  ;  and 
the  sons  of  the  siranjjer  sliall  not  drink  thy  wine,  fur  the  which  thou  hast 
labored:  but  ihey  that  have  gnthered  it  shall  eat  it,  and  praise  the  Lord; 
and  they  that  have  brought  it  together  shall  drink  it  in  the  courts  of  my 
holiness." — Isaiah  62:  8,  9. 

"  We  know  no  well-authenticated  instance  of  a  people  which  has 
decidedly  retrograded  in  civilization  and  prosperity,  except  from  the 
influence  of  violent  and  terrible  calamities,  such  as  those  which  laid  the 
Roman  empire  in  ruins,  or  those  which,  about  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  desolated  Italy.  We  know  of  no  country  which,  at  the 
end  of  fifty  years  of  peace  and  tolerably  good  government,  has  been  less 
prosperous  than  at  the  beginning  of  that  period." — Lord  Macaulay. 

\It  is  not  to  be  understood  that  the  evils  which  attached 
themselves  to  the  industrial  era  were  either  inevitable  or 
unavoidable;  for  there  was  no  necessary  connection  between 
the  system  which  introduced  them  and  the  system  itself. 
They  were  simply  injustices ;  the  growth  of  a  soil  undoubtedly 
fertile  in  abuses  unless  restrained  by  law,  but  as  amenable  to 
it  as  any  other  wron^sX  When  that  control  was  applied,  it 
became  apparent  that  the  transfer  of  work  from  the  home  to 
large  establishments  had  been  a  decided  element  in  the  pro- 
gress of  the  industrial  population,  and  that  it  was  in  fact  a 
step  forward  in  that  consolidation  of  society,  by  which  lasting 
inTjDrovements  are  alone  effected. 

(in  the  monograph*  embodied  in  the  tenth  United  States 
census,  the  factory  system  is  spoken  of  as  one  **  which  has  in 
it  more  possibilities  for  good  for  the  masses  who  must  work 
for  day's  wages,  than  any  scheme  which  has  been  devised  by 


*  By  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright,  the  highest  American  authority  on  the 
subject. 

C43) 


44       BENEFITS    ACCRUING    FROM    THE   FACTORY   SYSTEM. 

philanthropy  alone."  And  in  recurring  to  the  subject  five 
years  later  the  writer  of  the  article  referred  to  says  that 
*' coeval  with  the  change  in  the  industrial  system  and  the 
introduction  of  machinery  the  workman  began  to  rise  in 
importance  as  a  social  factor."*'  Mr.  Daniel  Pidgeon  bears 
similar  testimony:  "In  spite  of  a  bad  beginning  and  early 
mal-administration,  in  spite  of  a  low  condition  of  labor  and 
\  a  lower  conception  of  its  claims,  the  factory  system  has  bene- 
fited the  English  operative  as  no  other  form  of  industry  has 
done."f 

The  benefits  which  remained  after  its  attendant  abuses  had 
been  removed  were  the  separation  of  the  home  from  the 
workshop,  thus  laying  the  basis  of  sanitary  improvements, 
greater  fixity  of  earnings  and  payment,  shorter  hours  of 
labor,  better  education  and,  above  all,  the  opportunities  it 
afterwards  afforded  for  united  and  co-operative  effort  in 
unexpected  directions.  In  addition  to  these  must  be  included 
a  long  list  of  secondary  benefits,  secondary  that  is,  in  point 
of  sequence,  made  efficacious  by  legislation,  almost  any  one 
of  which  would  in  itself  be  a  cogent  answer  to  a  detractive 
argument  against  the  new  methods  of  industry  as  compared 
wi4Ja.J:he  old. 

VThere  can  indeed  be  little  doubt  that  the  factory  system 
has  been  a  strong  wave  in  that  ceaseless  tide  of  advance 
which  enables  each  generation  to  start  on  a  higher  plane 
than  its  preceding  one,  which  makes  the  marvels  of  one  age 
the  commonplaces  of  the  next,  the  luxuries  of  the  past  the 
necessities  of  the  present,  and  the  knowledge  of  the  father 
the  primer  of  the  son.  Were  it  otherwise,  the  outlook  for 
those  not  born  to  wealth  would  be  a  dark  one_^ 

What  that  progress  has  been  might  be  almost  condensed  in 


■^Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  Massachusetts,  1885. 

f  "  Old  World  Questions  and  "New  World  Answers,"  page  225. 

J  In  those  i)arts  of  Europe  where  home  industry  still  prevails  the  bare 
subsistence  that  is  yielded  by  the  most  unremitting  toil  is  in  striking  con- 
trast to  the  better  paid  labor  and  shorter  hours  of  factory  life.  See  United 
States  Consulate  Reports,  1884,  "  Labor  in  Europe,"  pages  18,  19,  23. 


RfeVIKW  OF  THE  CENTURY.  45 

the  one  stupendous  fact  that  since  1834  nearly  34,000,000 
persons  have  been  emancipated  in  Europe,  the  United  States, 
and  the  possessions  of  Great  Britain,  either  from  direct  slav- 
ery, or  the  soil-bondage  of  serfdom.  In  that  year  Great 
Britain  had  in  her  West  India  colonies  781,000  slaves.  In 
1840  there  were  7,000,000  serfs  in  Austria.*  The  last  relic  of 
serfdom  was  abolished  in  Hungary  in  1848. f  In  1861  the 
crown  set  free  21,755,000  in  Russia.  In  i860  there  were 
4,000,000  slaves  in  the  United  States.  To-day  all  these  vast 
numbers  are  free.  By  the  reform  bills  of  1832,  1867,  and 
1884,  the  House  of  Commons  became  for  the  first  time  a 
direct  reflex  of  the  opinions  of  the  people,  and  as  nearly  re- 
jiresentative  of  their  views  as  the  lower  House  here.  Both 
bodies  are  certainly  more  pliant  to  the  will  of  an  electorate 
of  which  the  working  man  forms  by  far  the  largest  part,  than 
any  representative  institutions  that  have  existed  since  the 
foundation  of  parliaments. 

**  I  confess  it  fills  me  with  astonishment,"  said  Professor 
Huxley,  a  little  while  ago,  "  to  think  that  the  time  when  no 
man  could  travel  faster  than  horses  could  transport  him,  when 
our  means  of  locomotion  were  no  better  than  those  of  Achilles 
or  of  Rameses  Miamum,  lies  within  my  memory."  J  How 
marvellous  the  change  can  be  exemplified  by  no  greater  con- 
trasts than  on  this  ct)ntinent.  By  getting  up  at  three  or  four 
in  the  morning  and  prolonging  the  journey  till  late  at  night 
it  was  possible  a  century  ago  to  make  the  trip  from  Boston  to 
New  York  in  six  days.§  It  took  Lewis  and  Clarke  from  the 
14th  of  May,  1804,  to  the  15th  of  November,  1805,  to  cross 
from  the  vicinity  of  St.  Louis  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia. 
Now  four  lines  of  railway  carry  passengers  from  ocean  to  ocean 
in  six  days,  in  cars  that  equal  in  luxury  the  appointments  of 
an  eastern  monarch. 

In  1807  Fulton's  boat  rode  on  the  waters  of  the  Hudson  at 

*  Mulhall's  "  Dictionary  of  Statistic;." 

f  Appleton's  tincyclopedia,  article  "Serf." 

X  Ad«lress  to  the  Roval  Society,  1885. 

I  McMaster,  "  A  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States.'* 


^  INCREASE   OF   COMMERCE. 

a  speed  of  five  miles  an  hour,  an  object  of  astonishment  to 
the  sloops  from  Albany  whose  run  from  that  place  to  New  York 
occasionally  occupied  two  weeks.*  In  iSigthe  "Savannah" 
sailed  from  the  port  of  that  name  to  Russia,  the  first  instance 
of  ocean  steam  navigation.  By  1885,  Fulton's  crude  proto- 
type had  increased  on  our  inland  and  coast  waters  to  5,000 
stout  vessels  of  iron  and  wood,  each  carrying  an  annual  aver- 
age of  33,000  persons  and  5000  tons  of  merchandise,  and 
ships  of  8000  tons  make  the  passage  from  Liverpool  to  New 
York  many  hours  quicker  than  it  took  to  go  from  Boston  to 
Philadelphia  in  1810.  Every  emigrant  steamer  now  arriving 
at  New  York  brings  "  from  Queenstovvn  more  human  beings 
than  a  hundred  years  ago  crossed  the  ocean  in  both  directions 
in  the  space  of  a  twelvemonth,"  f  and  the  waterways  of 
commerce  are  now  better  defined  than  the  trails  over  which 
the  early  settlers  followed  Boone  to  Kentucky,  or  the  pioneers 
of  1849  travelled  in  their  journey  to  the  Pacific. 

In  181 1  the  average  speed  of  news  in  Europe  was  seventy 
miles  I  a  day.  The  first  information  of  the  result  of  the  battle 
of  Waterloo  did  not  reach  the  British  Government  until  fifty 
hours  after  Napoleon's  defeat,  and  the  news  of  the  great  vic- 
tory did  not  arrive  at  Calcutta  until  a  few  days  before  Christ- 
mas, or  six  months  after  the  event.  In  1791  it  required  on  an 
average  eleven  and  a  half  weeks  to  get  intelligence  at  Paris  from 
Washington ;  now  the  resident  of  San  Francisco  can  com- 
municate with  the  antipodes  in  an  hour,  or  with  London  in  a 
minute,  and  Mr.  Cyrus  Field  lately  stated  that  he  could  trans- 
act his  business,  by  means  of  the  telegraph,  equally  as 
well  from  the  Pacific  Coast  or  Europe  as  in  his  office  at  New 
York. 

Since  that  first  exclamation  of  reverence  and  awe,  **  What 
hath  God  wrought,"  was  sent  over  the  magnetic  wire,  these 
states  have  been  crossed  by  more  than  230,000  miles  of  lines, 


*  McMaster,  "  A  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  Stales." 

t  Ibid. 

X  Mulhall's   "  Dictionary  of  Statistics." 


INCREASE   OF   WEALTH.  47 

and  180,000  messages  are  forwarded  over  them  daily.  In  the 
deplli  of  the  waters  lie  115,000  miles  of  those  slender  roiKJs 
of  copper  that  bind  nations  together  in  a  stronger  union  than 
formal  treaties,  and  the  length  of  rail  by  which  the  world 
transports  its  commerce,  would  now  more  than  girdle  its  cir- 
cumference fourteen  times. 

In  1774  Massachusetts  had  14  post-offices  and  New  Hamp- 
shire I  ;  *  seven  years  later  there  were  but  6  in  New  Jersey 
with  a  gross  revenue  of  $530.  The  total  number  in  the 
United  States  in  1790  was  only  75,  and  the  entire  expendi- 
ture of  the  department,  $32,140.  By  1886  the  number  had 
reached  53,614,  and  the  exjienditure  to  more  than  $50,000,000. 
**  In  the  mountains  of  New  Hampshire,  in  the  hill-country 
of  Pennsylvania,  in  the  rice  swamjjs  of  Georgia  and  the  Caro- 
linas  letters  were  longer  in  going  to  their  destination  than 
they  are  now  in  reacliing  Pekin.  Letters  sent  out  from  Phil- 
adelphia spent  five  weeks  in  winter  going  a  distance  now  passed 
over  in  a  single  afternoon. "f  The  mail  from  New  York  to 
Philadelphia  was  despatched  five  times  a  week  and  was  easily 
carried  in  a  saddle-bag.  The  rate  of  postage  established  in 
1792  for  that  distance  was  10  cents.  In  1836  it  cost  28  cents 
to  send  a  letter  from  London  to  Belfast,  and  52  cents  to  New 
York.  Now  the  uniform  charge  to  the  most  widely  separated 
countries  of  the  postal  union  is  5  cents,  and  for  that  sum  a 
communication  can  be  forwarded  from  Alaska  to  Egypt, 
Greenland,  Ceylon,  or  Tripoli,  with  the  assurance  that  it  will 
be  carried  over  land  and  sea  as  fast  as  steam  can  convey  it. 

Since  1830  the  ratio  of  commerce  per  inhabitant  has  risen 
in  Europe  from  jQi  ^.  8{/.  to  ;^6  gs.  dd.  (1880);  in  the 
United  Kingdom  from  jQ^  \2s.  od.  to  ;^i6  Gs.  od.,  and  in 
the  United  States  from  $10.00  to  $30,254  For  the  ten  years 
ending  1880  the  set  of  every  sun  found  the  inhabitants  of  the 
British  Isles  $2,000,000  richer  in  houses,  railways,  shipping, 


*  McMaster,  "  A  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States." 
t  Mulhall's  "  Dictionary  of  Statistics." 


48  SOCIAL   CONDITION. 

bullion,  land,  capital,  etc.,  than  they  were  at  its  rising.* 
From  1850  to  1880  the  aggregate  value  of  the  manufactures 
of  this  country  multiplied  5^^  times,"f  and  even  the  enormous 
addition  of  wealth  by  Great  Britain  has  been  exceeded  here. 
Her  increase  during  the  ten  years  mentioned  was  from  6880 
to  8410,  each  unit  representing  a  million  pounds  sterling; 
ours  from  7074  to  9495.  J  From  i860  to  1880  the  per  capita 
wealth  of  the  United  States  has  risen  from  ^615  to  ^940, § 
and  Mr.  Atkinson  estimates  that  the  net  national  savings  or 
addition  to  capital  during  the  census  year  (1880)  amounted 
to  $900,000,000. 

This  story  of  increase  in  material  prosperity  might  be  con- 
tinued almost  indefinitely  and  yet  the  half  not  be  told. 
Books  might  be  filled,  as  they  continually  are,  with  the 
records  of  discovery  in  science,  art,  and  invention,  the  birth 
of  new  ideas  and  their  application  to  the  wants,  conveniences 
and  comforts  of  mankind,  the  growth  of  individual  and  cor- 
porate wealth,  and  the  rise  of  industries  recently  non-exist- 
ent. ||  To  do  so  even  cursorily  would  be  to  recount  the  his- 
tory of  civilization  for  three  generations,  in  as  many  branches 
of  achievement  as  there  are  sub-divisions  of  the  industrial 
arts  and  sciences,  and  that  would  require  volumes  in  itself. 

The  only  purpose  of  this  recital  is  to  ascertain  if  the  bulk 
of  the  population,  those  whose  hands  guide  the  machinery 
of  the  world,  who  reap  its  harvests,  distribute  its  commerce, 
and  convert  the  raw  material  into  saleable  products,  have 
shared  in  the  general  advance.  For  it  will  avail  little  to  the 
man  who  drives  the  harvester  that  it  cuts,  binds,  winnows 
and  bags  thirty  times  more  grain  than  his  father  could  cut 
with  a  sickle,  unless  his  loaf  of  bread  has  been  cheapened 
thereby.     It  will  be  of  small  importance  to  the  weaver  who 

*  Mulhall's  "  History  of  Trices." 

f  Mulhall's  "  Dictionary  of  Statistics." 

j  MullialTs  "History  of  Prices." 

I  Ibid. 

II  The  single  article  of  petroleum  will  suffice  for  an  example.  On 
August  26,  1859,  the  first  flow  in  the  United  States  was  struck  al  Titus- 
ville.  and  in  1880  its  product  was  valued  at  ^78,000,000. 


/ 

BOCIAL   CONDITION.  49 

Stands  at  the  spinning-mule  if  its  600  per  cent,  increase  of 
l)o\ver  over  the  old  wheel  has  not  somehow  given  him  cheaper 
and  better  clothes.  (Therefore,  unless  the  blessing  of  wealth 
won  by  material  progress  has  like  the  rain  from  heaven  fallen 
on  the  poor  as  well  as  the  rich,  if  it  has  only  served  "to 
make  the  poor  poorer,  and  the  rich  richer,"  it  would  have 
been  better  if  it  had  never  been  created,  and  the  mass  of 
civilized  society  would  have  been  happier  by  remaining  in 
the  primitive  bonds  of  the  old  conditions,  with  no  general 
display  of  luxury  to  tempt,  no  new-born  desires  to  be 
appeased^  iLet  us  see,  therefore,  if  labor  has  gained  by  this 
prosperity;  or  if  its  recompense  has  been  only  the  gleanings 
of  the  harvest,  the  few  stray  ears  left  for  very  shame  from  an 
abundant  field  after  others  have  garnered  the  golden  grain. 

Ten  years  ago  a  contributor  to  the  Atlantic  Monthly* 
wrote:  **  Were  it  possible  to  bring  to  view  a  clear  picture 
of  the  manner  in  which  people  lived  a  century  ago,  and  con- 
trast it  with  the  manner  in  which  they  live  now,  I  think  it 
would  be  found  that  the  amenities  of  life  have  increased  in  a 
greater  ratio  than  the  power  of  production.  The  results  of 
this  increased  -power  of  production  are  better  general  educa- 
tion, wider  diffusion  of  intelligence,  larger  charities,  and  the 
general  elevation  of  the  condition  of  the  whole  people. 
Laborers  have  not  only  participated  in  these  benefits,  but 
have  derived  special  advantages." 

puch  a  picture  has  since  been  graphically  drawn,j  with 
every  detail  filled  in,  and  we  now  know  how  the  laboring 
classes  of  the  infant  republic  toiled,  dressed,  ate,  and  lived, 
what  kind  of  houses  sheltered  them,  how  they  amused  them- 
selves, what  were  their  habits  of  speech,  their  literature, 
social  status,  currents  of  thought,  and  manners  and  customs 
generally. 

\Ve  learn  from  it  and  other  sources,  that  the  laborer  at  the 
close  of  the  last  century  could  only  keep  his  children  from 


*  Mr.  Erruitus  E    Bipelow,  Octol>er  18,  1878. 
fM^Lister's  "  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States." 
4 


60  CHEAPENING   OF   PRODUCTS. 

Starvation  and  himself  from  the  jail  by  the  strictest  economy. 
Those  comforts  and  conveniences  of  life  now  common  in  the 
humblest  homes  were  utterly  unknown  to  him.  His  carpet 
was  sand  sprinkled  on  the  floor.  China,  glass,  and  the  com- 
mon prints  that  now  adorn  every  wall  were  beyond  his  reach. 
Neither  the  iron  stove  nor  the  lucifer  match  had  yet  been 
thought  of.  His  dingy  rooms  were  warmed  by  an  open  fire 
of  wood,  the  fragments  of  boxes  and  barrels,  which  gave  out 
much  smoke  and  little  heat.  ^'Anthracite  coal,  though  for 
fifteen  years  in  use  in  blacksmiths'  forges  in  the  coal  regions, 
was  unavailable  for  household  purposes,  and  in  1806  the  first 
freightage  of  a  few  hundred  bushels  was  brought  down  to 
Philadelphia,  and  there  used  experimentally  with  indifferent 
success."  *  He  rarely  tasted  fresh  meat,  and  a  pound  of  salt 
pork  cost  him  two-fifths  of  a  day's  labor.  A  day's  work  now 
will  buy  half  a  barrel  of  flour.  In  1784  corn  was  y.  per 
bushel,  wheat  8s.  dd.  His  rude  and  coarse  food  was  served 
in  pewter  dishes  and  eaten  with  the  roughest  implements. 
The  products  of  every  land,  which  can  now  be  found  in  the 
markets  of  our  cities  at  prices  accessible  to  the  poorest,  were 
either  unknown,  or  such  expensive  luxuries  for  the  rich,  that 
their  purchase  was  only  occasional.  "Among  the  fruits  and 
vegetables  of  which  no  one  had  even  then  heard  are  cante- 
loupes,  many  varieties  of  peaches  and  grapes,  tomatoes  and 
rhubarb,  sweet  corn,  the  cauliflower,  the  <igg  plant,  head  let- 
tuce, and  okra.  ...  If  the  food  of  an  artisan  would  now  be 
thought  coarse,  his  clothes  would  be  thought  abominable.  A 
pair  of  yellow  buckskin  or  leather  breeches,  a  checked  shirt, 
a  red  flannel  jacket,  a  rusty  felt  hat  cocked  up  at  the  corners, 
shoes  of  neat's  skin,  set  ofl"  with  huge  buckles  of  brass,  and  a 
leather  apron,  comprised  his  scanty  wardrobe."  f  An  un- 
skilled laborer,  by  working  from  daylight  to  dark,  could  earn 
2J.  a  day,  and  even  that  pittance  was  in  excess  of  the  prices 
prevailing  ten  years  before,  and  was  spoken  of  as  an  extrava- 


*  "  Statistics  of  Labor,"  Massachusetts,  1885. 

f  McMaster's  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States.* 


INCREASE   OP   WAGES. 


/ 


gant  demand.  The  rates  of  wages  in  1793  can  be  judged  of 
from  the  statement  that  the  Schuylkill  and  Susquehanna  Canal 
Company  advertised  for  workmen  at  $5.00  a  month  with 
board  and  lodging,  and  got  all  it  wanted  at  that  price. 
During  a  debate  in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  1794,  it 
was  brought  out  by  a  Vermont  member  that  in  his  State  men 
were  hired  for  $18.00  a  year,  with  board  and  clothing.  The 
Government  pay  for  soldiers  that  year  was  $3.00  a  month, 
and  in  discussing  the  proposal  to  raise  it  to  $4.00,  Mr.  Wads- 
worth  of  Pennsylvania  said :  "  In  the  States  north  of  Penn- 
sylvania the  wages  of  the  common  laborer  are  not  on  the 
whole  superior  to  those  of  a  common  soldier."  *  The  Rhode 
Island  farmer  in  1797  could  hire  good  farm  hands  at  $3.00 
per  month,  and  at  that  time  a  stout  boy  could  be  had  in 
Connecticut  for  ^i.oo  a  month,  for  which  sum  he  would  work 
from  daybreak  until  eight  or  nine  at  night.  There  was  little 
demand  for  labor.  Nearly  every  man  did  his  own  work. 
Industries  and  capital  were  non-existent,  and  occasional  field 
employment  at  nominal  wages  was  all  the  unskilled  hand  ^ 
ccmJii.  expect.  {y 

(Those  who  entertain  the  opinion  that  progress  and  poverty- 
are  associate  terms,  and  that  the  primitive  simplicity  of  the 
days  of  Washington  was  an  ideal  age  for  the  poor,  will  have 
some  difficulty  in  reconciling  these  views  with  the  fact,\hat  the 
laborer  who  met  with  an  accident  or  sickness  a  century  ago 
was  almost  certain  to  be  arrested  by  the  sheriff  as  soon  as  he 
recovered,  and  be  imprisoned  in  a  loathsome  jail,  among  the 
most  infamous  criminals,  for  the  small  debt  he  had  incurred 
during  his  disability.  To-day,  under  the  same  circumstances, 
he  would  be  tenderly  carried  in  an  ambulance  to  one  of  those 
great  institutions  which  charity  provides  for  the  wounded,  and 
while  receiving  the  best  surgical  skill  and  the  gentlest  nursing, 
his  family  would  be  cared  for  by  the  beneficiary  society  of 
which  he  was  a  member,  and  on  being  discharged,  kindness 
and  humanity  would  welcome  him  with  open  hands. 

*  Lecture  by  Professor  Thompson  to  the  students  of  Harvard. 


/ 


52  INCREASE   OF   WAGES. 

To  follow  the  fortunes  of  the  individual,  step  by  step, 
through  the  years  and  show  how  his  well-being  has  kept  pace 
with  the  numerals  of  the  century,  would  be  to  enlarge  this 
chapter  far  beyond  the  limits  assigned  to  it,  and  we  must 
therefore  merge  him  in  the  aggregate  and  ascertain  if  the  tests 
that  can  be  applied,  will  admit  the  conclusions  already  fore- 
shadowed. 

One  of  these  touchstones,  says  an  official  document,*  is 
the  average  consumption  of  cotton;  which  indicates  the 
standard  of  life  as  well  as  any  item  that  can  be  taken.  At 
the  two  distant  periods  of  1828  and  1880  ''the  ratio  of 
cost  per  pound  for  labor  of  common  cotton  cloth  ....  was 
as  6.77  to  3.31 ;  wages  for  the  same  dates  being  as  2.62  to 
4.84.'*  The  consumption  per  capita  of  total  population  was 
in  1831,  5.90  pounds;  in  1880,  13.9  pounds.  This  is  a 
decline  of  more  than  50  per  cent,  in  cost ;  an  increase  of  85 
per  cent,  in  wages,  and  of  135  per  cent,  in  the  quantity  used. 

Another  gauge  of  national  prosperity  is  afforded  by  the 
manufacture  of  pig  iron.  In  1830  it  was  only  28  pounds 
per  inhabitant;  in  1870,  90  pounds,  and  in  1882  196 
pounds,  while  the  decline  in  cost  of  production  has  been 
from  $33.50  per  ton  in  1841-50,  to  $18.00  in  1885.  The 
amount  of  sugar  used  per  capita  has  increased  from  2.95 
pounds  in  i860  to  5  pounds  in  1884,  and  as  consumption 
in  the  secondary  food  products  and  luxuries  largely  depends 
upon  national  prosperity,  it  affords  in  its  way  as  good 
a  test  of  the  financial  condition  of  the  masses  as  cotton  or 
iron. 

|Rut  the  figures  that  appeal  most  directly  to  the  understand- 
ing are  those  of  earnings.  In  the  comprehensive  statistics  of 
manufactures  embodying  the  results  of  the  tenth  census,  it  is 
shown  that  these  have  almost  doubled  during  the  past  fifty 
years.f  In  1828  the  average  weekly  wages  of  women  was 
$2.62;  in  1880,  $4.84.     In   i860  the  average  yearly  wages 


*  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor,  Washington,  1886. 

f  Volume  2,  p.  51,  "  The  Factory  System  of  the  United  States." 


/ 

SHORTENING  THE   WORKING   DAY.  58 

for  all,  men,  women,  and  children,  engaged  in  the  cotton 
industries,  was  $196.00;  in  1880,  $244.00.  In  1850  the  av- 
erage earnings  in  all  industries  throughout  the  United  States 
was  $247.11  ;  in  1880,  $346.91.*  The  percentage  of  wages 
on  products  is  not  so  satisfiictory,  showing  a  uniform  and 
steady  decline  since  1850,  when  it  stood  at  23.3,  to  1880, 
at  which  time  it  had  reached  17.8.  'This  is  the  natural  effect 
of  labor-saving  appliances,  though  it  may  also  indicate  that 
capitah  is  getting  more  than  a  fair  share  of  profit/ 

Wages  however  are  only  a  single  item  in  an  account.  A 
man  may  earn  as  much  one  year  as  another,  but  have  to  work 
harder  for  his  money.  This  has  not  been  the  case  in  the 
United  States,  fo^  concurrent  with  better  compensation  there 
has  been  a  reduction  in  the  daily  hours  of  labor  of  from  thir- 
teen and  fourteen  to  ten  and  eleven,  with  a  teTinency  to  still 
shorter  time.  Until  1824  it  was  the  rule  to  work  from  dawn 
to  dark,  and  there  was  only  a  slight  change  in  this  measure- 
ment until  1840.  Before  labor-saving  machinery  rendered 
such  work  unnecessary,  "the  labor  was  so  arduous  and  the 
hours  of  work  were  so  continuous  that  only  the  strongest  sur- 
vived  The  conditions  of  life  were  more  equal,  but 

it  was  the  equality  of  sordid,  continuous,  excessive  manual 
labor,  aided  neither  by  the  factory  nor  by  the  railroad ; 
neither  by  the  more  modern  inventions  of  the  ma.sters  of 
science,  nor  by  the  administrative  and  organizing  power  of 
the  great  capitalists,  without  whose  potential  work  all  modern 
progress  would  have  been  substantially  impossible."  f  The 
working  hours  in  the  majority  of  occupations  are  still  far  too 
long,  but  we  must  not  shut  our  eyes  to  what  has  already  been 
accomplished,  because  there  is  more  to  be  done.  The  cease- 
less toil  required  in  many  industries  is  a  crying  evil  that  will 
be  remedied  just  as  soon  as  there  is  a  strong  demand  for  its 
abatement.  In  the  meantime  the  gain  already  made  has  been 
an  uncountable  benefit  to  labor. 


♦Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  MnssachuseUs,  1885. 

f  Edward  Atkinson,  "  The  Distribution  of  Products,"  page*  36,  37. 


/ 


54  REVERSE   OF   THE   STORY. 

An  examination  of  the  relative  cost  of  the  food  necessaries 
of  life  in  i860  and  1884  shows  that  the  expansion  caused  by 
the  civil  war  has  been  followed  by  a  decline,  but  that  prices 
have  not  quite  reached  the  minimum  prevailing  before  it.  \If 
the  analysis  be  continued  to  products  it  is  also  found  that  the 
workingman  has  not  benefited  as  largely  by  their  cheapening 
through  labor-saving  processes  as  might  have  been  expected, 
and  that  rents  in  cities  have  advanced  so  considerably  as  to 
off-set  a  large  portion  of  the  wage  ga.\nj  It  is  so  exceedingly 
difficult,  however,  to  determine  whether  increase  of  earnings 
has,  or  has  not,  kept  pace  with  prices  as  a  whole,  that  no  defi- 
nite conclusion  can  be  reached,  but  it  is  at  least  certain  that 
there  is  at  present  no  serious  gap  between  the  two.  Some  of 
the  additional  cost  of  necessaries  can  be  explained  by  the 
heavy  demand  for  our  food  crops  by  foreign  nations,  which  is 
of  itself  evidence  of  an  improvement  in  their  economical 
status.  Those  articles  also,  which  have  their  base  in  the  ani- 
mal products,  such  as  leather,  woolen  goods,  beef,  butter, 
cheese,  and  hams,  are  almost  a  fixed  quantity  and  cannot  be 
increased  like  yards  of  cotton.  Their  supply  has  not  been 
proportionate  to  augmented  population,  and  until  the  products 
of  distant  grazing  fields  can  be  brought  nearer  to  the  con- 
sumer, values  in  this  class  are  not  likely  to  fall.  It  is  further 
to  be  noted  that  a  much  higher  standard  of  quality  is  de- 
manded than  formerly,  and  that  a  portion  of  the  advance  is 
represented  thereby.* 

Turning  from  the  evidences  of  improved  conditions  already 
presented,  to  another  test — that  of  savings — the  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Labor  reported  in   1886,  that  from  incom- 


*  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright  thinks  that  the  laborer  has  suffered  a  loss  of  10 

per  cent,  during  the  period  of  1860-1883  (see  article  in  the  Princeton 

Review,  July,  1882),  but  this  opinion  is  not  genera).     Mr.  Edward  Atkin- 

.son,  a  later  authority,  estimntes  that  there  has  been  a  large  advance  in  the 

purchasing  power  of  wages  since   i860.     In  the  case  of  specially  skilled 

I  men  he  computed  it  as  4000  in   1886  against  2374  in  the  first-mentioned 

1  year,  with  the  average  workman  at  2400  as  against   1572,  and  with  the 

j  common  laborer  at    1400  as  against  980.     (vSee    "  Century  Magazine," 

I  August,  1887.) 


DIFFICULTY    OF    riNDINr,    KMI'LOYMKNT.  OO 

plete  statistics  he  was  able  to  say  that  tliere  was  a  "constant 
progress  of  dei)osits,  and  a  constant  increase  in  the  number 
of  depositors."  An  exhibit  of  seventeen  States  and  Territo- 
ries gives  the  number  of  the  latter  in  1873-74  as  2,188,619, 
and  the  amount  of  deposits  as  ^347.23  per  capita.  In  1884- 
85  the  depositors  had  increased  to  3,071,495,  and  the  average 
per  capita  to  $356.56,  while  in  the  30  years  term  ending 
1880,  the  aggregate  national  wealth  or  savings  avernged  the 
vast  sum  of  $1,300,000,000  per  annum,  f  Thus,  to  gather  up 
the  facts  as  we  proceed ;  wage  earners  are  better  paid,  have 
to  work  less  time  for  their  income,  and  can  save  more  of  it 
than  formerly,  while  the  number  of  those  to  whom  this  state- 
ment applies  is  increasing,  in  spite  of  an  industrial  depression 
that  has  lowered  the  commercial  barometers  of  the  United 
States  and  Europe  for  many  years.) 

rAgainst  all  this  must  l)e  placed  the  present  difficulty  of 
fTTKling^eniptoyment.  It  is  estimated  that  during  the  year 
ending- Jtity  I,  1^885,  about  1,000,000  persons  were  out  of 
work,  causing  a  loss  to  the  consumptive  power  of  the  country 
of  $1,000,000  per  day.  This  number  represents  7^  per  cent, 
of  our  total  working  population,  and  such  an  expulsion  from 
the  labor  ranks  offers  a  problem  of  the  gravest  anxiety  to  the 
student  of  sociology.  We  know  that  it  is  immediately  due 
to  machinery,  over  production,  under  consumption  and  the 
cTirtaitment  of  railroad  elcT^nsion,  and  that  it  is  not  a  perma- 
nent condition,  yet  the  figures  are  in  themselves  very  porten- 
tous and  significant  of  the  weak  points  in  our  industrial  systeni.J 
(The  most  important  of  these  disturbing  elements  has  been 
the  continuous  introduction  of  labor-saving  machinery.  In 
brick-making,  for  instance,  improved  appliances  have  displaced 
10  per  cent,  of  the  labor,  and  in  fire-brick  manufacturing  40 
per  cent.  In  one  branch  of  the  bootmaking  trade,  women's 
boots,  100  persons  now  do  the  work  formerly  required  of 
500;  and  in  another,  machinery  has  reduced  the  operative 
force  one-half.  Goodyear's  sewing  machine  for  turned  shoes, 
enables  one  man  to  sew  250  pair  a  day,  where  formerly  8  men 
were  needed  to  do  the  same  work.     King's  heel-shaver  oper- 


56  EFFECT  OF   LABOR-SAVING    MACHINERY. 

ated  by  one  man  will  trim  300  pair  of  shoes  each  day,  where 
3  men  were  not  long  ago  required,  and  one  man  with  the 
McKay  machine  can  handle  300  pair  of  shoes  per  day,  while 
before  its  introduction  5  were  considered  a  good  day's  work. 
It  is  stated  that  in  this  business,  machinery  has  within  30 
years  caused  a  displacement  of  hand  labor  equal  to  600  per 
cent,  of  the  old  working  force,  and  in  another  grade  of 
goods,  made  in  Maine,  the  displacement  is  estimated  at  1000 
per  cent.J'' 

This  is  an  epitome  of  many  other  industries.  A  broom 
manufacturing  concern  which  in  1879  employed  17  men  to 
turn  out  500  dozen  brooms  each  week,  was  enabled  in  1885 
to  increase  the  output  to  1200  dozen,  and  this  addition  was 
effected  by  only  9  men,  aided  by  machinery.  In  the  con- 
struction of  carriages  and  wagons  the  deposition  of  labor 
within  the  last  few  years  has  been  200  per  cent.  ;  in  carpet- 
making,  improved  processes  enable  one  man  to  do  the  work 
that  30  years  ago  required  from  10  to  20  ;  in  the  manufacture 
of  clothing,  hats,  and  caps,  cutting  machines,  by  superseding 
the  hand  method,  have  reduced  the  working  force  once  neces- 
sary, in  the  proportion  of  3,  6,  and  9  to  i,  the  latter  being 
the  ratio  of  reduction  in  the  soft  and  stiff  hats  at  present  gen- 
erally worn.  In  flour-milling,  only  one-fourth  the  manual 
force  is  now  needed  to  produce  a  barrel  of  flour  that  was 
formerly  required.  In  the  manufacture  of  glass  jars,  the  dis- 
placement of  labor  has  been  in  the  proportion  of  6  to  i  ;  in 
patent  leather  50  per  cent.  ;  in  machine  making  and  the  ma- 
chinery trade  generally,  about  25  per  cent. ;  in  metals  and 
metallic  goods,  33  per  cent.  ;  while  in  the  steel  industries,  the 
steam  hammer  has  so  far  superseded  manual  labor  that  by  its 
aid  one  man  now  does  the  work  of  10.  In  the  manufacture 
of  wall  paper,  the  displacement  is  as  100  to  i  ;  in  some 
branches  of  pottery  ware  as  to  to  i  ;  in  ship  building  as  5  to 
I,  and  in  the  manufacture  of  railroad  supplies  and  rubber 
boots  and  shoes,  about  50  per  cent. 

*  These  facts  are  taken  from  the  fust  report  of  the  United  States  Com- 
missioner of  Labor,  1886. 


EFFECT  OF   LABOR-SAVING    MACHINERY. 


/ 


(These  illustrations,  which  might  be  added  to  many  times, 
sufficiently  show  the  enforced  changes  that  machinery  is  con- 
stantly making  in  industrial  conditions,  and  how  necessary  it 
is  for  labor  to  adjust  itself  rapidly  to  each  new  phase.  We 
know  furthermoie,  that  it  is  useless  to  array  ourselves  against 
the  progress  of  invention,  and  how  mercilessly  discovery 
treads  on  old  methods.  Neither  is  it  any  consolation  to  be 
informed  that  capital  is  frequently  a  sufferer  from  the  same 
cause.  There  is  no  help  for  these  things.  They  are  the  sac- 
rifice of  the  age  to  improvement,  a  penalty  to  progression, 
the  ultimate  benefits  of  which  will  fiir  exceed  the  present  loss 
both  in  material  and  social  gain.  If  it  were  not  for  this  com- 
pensatioa  inventive  progress  would  mean  disaster  to  more 
than  a  class,  and  industrial  society  would  ultimately  succumb 
to  mechanical  improvemeQtsJ  ^-n 

Every  mile  of  railroad  extension,  Mr.  Atkinson  says, 
"stands  for  the  work  of  about  fifty-six  men,  mostly  common 
laborers,  working  one  year."  In  1882,  11,602  miles  of  iron 
road  were  built;  in  1883,  6800,  and  in  1884,  only  3977. 
This  curtailment  will  account  for  457,000,  or  nearly  46  per 
cent,  of  the  unemployed,  as  compared  with  1882,  and  in  I 
connection  with  the  causes  just  noted  affords  an  explanation 
why  such  an  enormous  army  is  unable  to  find  work,  in  a  land 
teeming  with  natural  resources  and  abounding  in  created 
wealth. 

(^hether  these  dark  spots  on  an  otherwise  bright  picture 
will  increase  or  decrease,  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but  it  is 
probable  that  like  the  sun-spots  they  are  periodic,  and  gov- 
erned by  laws  not  fully  comprehended.  Yet  notwithstand-  ^ 
ing  these,  it  must  be  admitted  that  never  before  has  plenty  1 
been  within  the  reach  of  so  many,  or  the  rewards  of  industry, 
frugality  and  temperance  so  sure;  and  that  never  before  have 
one  people,  on  one  continent,  under  one  government,  enjoyed 
such  national  blessings,  or  had  so  much  cause  to  offer  grateful 
thanks  to  the  almighty  Ruler  of  events  for  his  ceaseless  and 
loving  bounty. 


58  THE   GAIN   OF   FIFTY    YEARS. 

Crossing  the  Atlantic,  to  the  nation  that  more  closely 
resembles  our  own  in  all  that  makes  kinship,  we  find  resist- 
less evidence  thatlltlie  world  of  to-day  is  a  brig])t^r  and 
pleasanter  one  to  the  toiler  there  than  ever  befope>-^  Fifty 
years  ago  his  position  could  not  be  compared  wilh  that  of 
our  artisans;  since  then  the  equalizing  process  has  brought 
them  very  near  together,  and  in  the  natural  order  of  things 
it  is  to  be  expected  that  its  operations  will  continue  through- 
out all  lands,  until  labor  and  commodities  approximate  in 
places  far  apart. 

As  each  Chinaman  who  arrives  on  the  Pacific  Coast  pulls 
down  wages  in  California,  and  in  an  infinitesimal  degree 
raises  them  in  his  own  country,  so  the  immense  migration 
from  Europe  has  reduced  the  standard  here  and  added  to  it 
there.  Both  continents  have  gained  by  the  transfer,  and  both 
have  been  brought  nearer  equality,  though  many  people  are 
afraid  that  it  is  in  the  direction  of  pauperism.  To  this  answer 
may  be  made,  that  if  pauperism  is  the  general  condition  of 
Europe  it  will  soon  be  ours  also,  as  labor,  like  connecting 
waters,  ultimately  reaches  the  same  level  unless  restrained  by 
artificial  barriers.  Anything,  therefore,  be  it  good  or  evil, 
that  affects  the  workingman  of  Europe  is  immediately  felt  in 
the  same  influence  on  this  side  of  the  ocean,  for  commerce 
has  interwoven  an  inseparable  community  of  interest  between 
the  artisans  of  Chicago  and  Birmingham,  the  miners  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  Belgium,  the  weavers  of  Massachusetts  and  Man- 
chester; and  to  divide  those  interests  now  is  as  much  of  an 
impossibility  as  to  put  time  back  into  the  eighteenth  century. 
Selfish  reasons,  then,  if  no  other,  must  make  us  rejoice  in  the 
prosperity  of  our  working  kin  in  other  lands,  as  we  are  all 
members  of  the  same  industrial  body. 

The  most  careful  investigator  of  social  statistics  in  Great 
Britain*  states  that  the  general  wages  of  artisans  and  weavers 
in  that  country  show  an  increase  ranging  from  20  to  in  most 
cases  50  to  100  per  cent.,  or  a  mean  increase  of  70  per  cent., 

*  Mr.  Giffeii,  Statistician  to  the  Board  of  Trade. 


REDOOTION   OP  WORKING   HOURS.  69 

within  the  last  thirty  years.  Taking  the  three  periods  of 
1840-60-84,  and  five  representative  occupations:  Black- 
smiths* wages  have  risen  from  $5.10  to  $6.75  and  then  $7.^0 
l)er  week  ;  masons*  from  55.50  to  $7.20  and  $8.40;  carpen- 
ters* from  $4.80  to  |6.oo  and  $7.20;  pUimbers*  from  $5.25 
to  ^7.20  and  $8.40;  and  cotton  spinners'  from  ^4.30  to 
54.80  and  55.75.*  Witliin  thirty  years  seamen's  wages  liave 
been  raised  50  per  cent.,  in  addition  to  an  improvement  in 
food  and  lodgings  at  sea  fully  equal  to  the  money  equivalent, 
and  the  average  gain  of  the  once  wretchedly-paid  agricultural 
laborer  has  within  forty  years  been  60  per  cent.  In  speaking 
of  the  poverty  of  this  class,  Mr.  Maurice  mentions f  that  in 
1830  a  man  was  employed  by  a  nobleman  as  hedger  and 
ditcher  for  50  cents  a  week.  The  same  work  would  now 
command  62  cents  per  day,  besides  a  small  allotment  on 
which  to  raise  vegetables,  and  even  in  Ireland  the  improve- 
ment in  the  wages  or  earnings  of  small  farmers  and  laborers 
has  been  at  least  100  per  cent,  within  the  last  half  century. 

The  statistics  of  diminution  in  the  hours  of  labor  are  too 
diffuse  to  be  presented  here,  and  the  various  estimates  differ 
somewhat  in  the  results  attained.  A  careful  examination  of 
an  elaborate  table  prepared  in  1884J  shows  a  decrease  amongst 
artisans  of  from  about  60  hours  per  week,  in  1859,  to  56^ 
at  the  present  time,  and  in  some  special  trades  to  54.  Mr. 
Carroll  D.  Wright  in  a  tabulation  of  18  prominent  industries, 
including  textile,  brings  the  reduction  to  53 5^, §  and  Mr. 
Giffen's  computation  is,  that  in  the  textile,  engineering,  and 
building  trades  the  hours  of  labor  have  been  reduced  20  per 
cent,  in  30  years,  making  with  increased  wages  a  net  gain  in 
money  return  of  about  90  per  cent. 

In    Mr.  Mulhall's    "History  of  Prices  *'||    he   shows  that 


*  Mnlhall's  "  History  of  Prices  " 

f  "  Life  of  Frederick  Denison  Maurice,"  vol.  i,  page  1 1 5. 
X  Social  Science  Congress,  1884,  '^y  ^Ir.  E.  Van»ittant  Neale,  Secretary 
to  the  Central  Co-operative  Board. 

^  Bureau  of  I>alv)r  Statistics,  Mass.,  1885. 

II  "  History  of  Trices  since  the  Year  1850,"  by  Michael  G.  Mulhall. 


60  GAIN   THROUGH   SAVINGS. 

"  the  condition  of  the  working  classes  has  so  much  improved 
that  they  now  consume  in  all  countries  twice  as  much  as  in 
1850."  Textile  fabrics  are  11  per  cent,  cheaper  than  they 
were  in  1850,  books  and  newspapers,  ^;^  per  cent.,  and  the 
same  amount  of  labor  will  now  buy  the  workingman  of 
Europe  140  pounds  of  bread  as  against  77  pounds  in  the  de- 
cade ending  i860.  The  deductions  of  this  eminent  statisti- 
cian are  that  *'  15  shillings  will  now  buy  as  much  manufac- 
tures as  20  in  the  years  1841-50,  but  in  matters  of  food  we 
should  require  22  shillings,"  and  that  taking  increased  wages 
and  food  values  together,  the  English  workingman  is  able  to 
purchase  21  per  cent,  more  of  the  necessaries  of  life  in  beef, 
butter,  sugar,  wheat,  and  coal  than  in  1840.  Enhanced  rent 
reduces  his  ability  considerably,  yet  after  allowing  for  this 
there  is  still  a  gain  of  at  least  10  per  cent. 

A  confirmation  of  the  improved  conditions  indicated  by 
these  authorities  is  found  in  other  directions.  In  1831  there 
were  429,000  depositors  in  the  savings  banks,  having  to  their 
credit,  $68,595,000.*  By  1881  they  numbered  4,140,000, 
with  $401,670,000  in  bank,  which  had  further  increased  at 
the  close  of  1885  to  ;^47o,ooo,ooo.  The  amount  per  inhabi- 
tant rose  from  $7.00  in  i860  to  $11.25  i^^  1882,  besides  which 
the  various  friendly  societies  had  in  their  possession  at  that 
date  over  $65, 000,000. f 

During  the  ten  years  ending  1885,  the  average  accumulation 
of  the  working  classes  in  savings  banks  and  mutual  societies 
has  been  $49,000,000  per  annum ;  the  latter  form  of  invest- 
ment showing  an  increase  of  200  per  cent,  and  pointing  to 
the  strides  that  distributive  co-operation  is  making.  In  1857 
the  building  societies  had  a  membership  of  157,560,  with  re- 
ceipts of  $38,337,570.  By  1882  the  registered  membership 
was  345,661,  whose  payments  for  the  year  amounted  to 
$65,259,195,  and  their  assets  to  $185,000,000. 

With  better  food,  improved  sanitary  appliances,  and  shorter 


*  Giffen. 

•j-  Mulhali's  "  Dictionary  of  Statistics." 


IMPROVED  EDUCATIONAL  FACILITIES.     .  61 

hours  of  labor,  the  mean  duration  of  life  among  males  has 
been  raised  since  1840  from  39.9  to  41.9  years,  and  in  females 
from  41.9  to  45.3,  and  the  larger  i)ro|)ortion  of  increased 
duratron  is  at  the  useful  ages.  **  No  such  changes,"  remarks 
the  compiler  of  these  figures,*  "could  take  place  without  a 
great  increase  in  the  vitality  of  the  people."  Tiie  mortality 
in  England  and  Wales  has  declined  from  21.8  per  thousand 
in  1857  to  19.2  in  1881-85,  and  as  70  per  cent,  of  the  popii- 
lation  of  those  countries  is  made  up  of  the  so-called  working 
classes,  the  gain  in  health  thereby  to  them  is  obvious. 

In  1839  th.e  first  grant  by  Parliament  for  education  amounted 
only  to  $150,000,  and  this  small  sum  was  inserted  in  the  esti- 
mates at  the  immediate  suggestion  of  the  Queen.  In  1885 
the  appropriations  for  this  purpose  were  $22,945,995,  and  the 
number  of  children  in  attendance  at  schools  aided  by  the 
public  revenue  rose  in  Great  Britain  from  271,000  in  1851 
to  3,827,000  in  18S5.  The  ratio  of  adults  able  to  write  in- 
creased in  the  fifty  years  ending  1881  from  55  to  84  per  cent, 
in  England,  from  77  to  88  per  cent,  in  Scotland,  and  from 
46  to  67  per  cent,  in  Ireland.  From  1871,  the  year  after  a 
national  system  of  education  was  effectually  introduced,  to 
1 881,  the  number  of  schools,  and  children  in  attendance  on 
them,  more  than  doubled,  and  the  effect  of  this  intellectual 
activity  at  once  manifested  itself  in  the  post-oflfice  returns  by 
an  increase  in  the  number  of  letters  per  capita,  from  24  per 
annum  in  1861-70,  to  37  per  annum  in  1881-85. f 

Nor  have  the  efforts  for  better  education  been  confined  to 
the  elementaries,  or  exclusively  to  children.  A  large  number 
of  universities  and  detached  colleges  have  been  founded, 
especially  within  the  last  ten  years,  to  which  workingmen  are 
admitted  on  payment  of  nominal  fees,!  and  where  they  can 
receive  technical  instruction  adapted  to  their  special  indus- 
tries.   These,  with  the  magnificent  free  libraries,  art  galleries, 


♦  Giffen.  t  Mulhall. 

I  The  best  ]<no\vn  of  these  is  the  London  "  Workingmen's  College," 
of  which  Mr.  Maurice  was  princiixil  up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  when  he 
was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Thomas  Hughes. 


62  CRIME    AND    PAUrEUISM. 

museums  and  parks,  with  which  most  large  cities  are  now  so 
liberally  endowed,  have  had  an  educative  influence  of  the 
highest  tendency,  for  they  have  placed  the  keys  which  unlock 
all  human  knowledge  in  the  hands  of  every  one,  and  few  need 
now  fail  to  rise  to  their  highest  possibilities  for  want  of 
opportunity.  The  change  from  1843,  when  32.7  per  cent, 
of  the  male  and  49.4  per  cent,  of  the  female  population  were 
unable  to  write  their  names,  or  even  from  1869,  when  Mr.  J. 
Scott  Russell  presented  his  plea  to  her  Majesty  for  a  systematic 
technical  instruction,  is  so  marked  as  to  form  in  itself  one  of 
the  wonders  of  progress,  and  open  the  way  to  that  looked-for 
future  when  all  nations  shall  be  '*an  organized  democracy  of 
educated  men." 

The  effects  of  education,  better  earnings,  and  general  pros- 
perity, as  might  be  expected,  are  especially  exemplified  in  a 
diminution  of  crime  and  pauperism.  Notwithstanding  the 
addition  of  7,500,000  to  the  population,  the  number  of 
criminals  committed  for  trial  was  reduced  from  54,000  in 
1839  to  an  annual  average,  during  the  period  1880-85,  of 
20,712,  and  the  recipients  of  poor-relief  fell  from  1,676,000 
in  1849  ^o  982,000  in  1885.  From  1857  to  1884  the  decrease 
in  England  under  the  latter  head  was  34.91  per  cent.,  and 
whereas  in  the  former  year  there  were  43  paupers  in  every 
1000  inhabitants,  in  1886  there  were  only  25.* 

This  generation  has  also  seen  the  birth  of  what  there  is 
reason  to  believe  will  be  the  industrial  system  of  the  future. 
Hardly  had  society  shaped  itself  anew  for  the  manufacturing 
era,  before  labor  began  to  complain  that  it  was  in  bond  to  a 
new  master,  not  so  rigorous  as  the  old,  but  still  an  unfair  one, 
who  took  much  more  than  he  gave,  and  gave  unwillingly. 
To  remedy  this,  the  suggestion  of  a  direct  co-operation  of 
capital  and  labor,  with  a  direct  division  of  profits  to  both, 
was  acted  upon,  and  though  it. is  not  yet  very  far  removed 

*  "  Notwithstandinor  an  increase  of  7,000,000  in  population,  the  returns 
of  pauperism  in  England  show  a  decrease  in  twenty-five  years,  1860-85, 
of  70,000."  Report  of  the  United  Slates  Commissioner  of  Labor, 
1SS6. 


BENEFICIAL   LEGISLATION.  68 

from  the  experimental  stage,  it  has  already  arched  the  horizon 
with  a  rainbow  of  promise.  Had  the  possil)iliiy  of  such  a 
combination  been  mooted  to  the  Arkwrights  and  Peels  of  the 
last  century,  or  to  the  early  factory  kings  of  this,  it  would 
have  been  scouted  as  illusory,  the  dream  of  a  simple  Ar- 
cadian who  had  never  seen  a  piece  of  machinery,  or  the 
visionary  project  of  a  resident  in  some  far  away  Hajipy  Val- 
ley, whose  knowledge  of  the  duties  of  labor  and  the  rights 
of  wealth  had  no  higher  source  than  his  observation  of  an 
ant-hill.  Yet  to  day  it  is  a  reality,  a  comparatively  small  one 
certainly,  nevertheless  containing  within  itself  the  germ  of 
potentiality.  That  it  should  be  the  most  minute  actuality,  is 
as  striking  a  contrast  with  the  past  as  the  telegraph  to  the 
beacon-fires  of  old.  It  may  be  an  acorn  from  which  will 
grow  vast  forests,  or  it  may  be  crushed  under  foot  and 
destroyed  as  many  other  seeming  seeds  of  good  have  been. 
Yet  in  either  case  it  is  a  recognition  of  human  rights,  and 
such  an  antithesis  to  the  rule  of  the  Roman  and  the  ancient 
nobility,  to  slavery,  feudalism  and  serfdom,  and  the  child- 
hood of  industry,  as  to  constitute  a  conspicuous  event  in  the 
progress  of  ideas.  From  1833  to  1885  the  scope  of  beneficial 
legislation  directly  in  the  interest  of  labor  has  included  nearly 
every  province  of  state  intervention,  both  for  the  protection 
of  its  natural  rights  and  the  increase  of  its  opportunities. 
Among  tiiese  may  be  included  the  repeal  of  the  corn  laws, 
which  was  a  concession  to  the  wageworker  at  the  exi)ense  of 
the  agricultural  capitalist ;  the  various  factory  acts,  which  are 
now  so  comprehensive  as  to  apply  to  every  prominent  manu- 
facture, and  the  long  series  of  enactments  for  the  better 
housing  of  the  laboring  poor.  The  perils  of  the  sailor  from 
unseaworthy  ships  and  of  the  operative  from  insufficiently 
fenced  machinery  have  alike  been  guarded  against,  and  the 
Employers*  Liability  Act  of  1880,  which  makes  him  answer- 
able for  the  results  of  accidents  to  his  employes,  whether 
occurring  from  defects  in  macliinery  or  the  negligence  of  his  / 
sub-agents,  is  the  most  sweeping  acknowledgment  of  the  1 
duty  and  Christian  responsibility  of  capital  ever  passed  by  a 


64  PROGRESS   OF   THE   WORKING   CLASSES.  ' 

legislature.  Co-operative  effort  has  been  encouraged  by  vari- 
ous fostering  measures,  and  all  restrictions  against  trade  unions 
abolished.  The  inspection  of  mines,  brick-fields  and  canal- 
boats  has  followed  that  of  factories,  and  a  national  system  of 
education,  enforced  sanitation,  and  various  expedients  to 
repress  intemperance,  have  aided  greatly  to  improve  the 
workers*  condition.  Postal  savings  banks  now  enable  the 
economical  to  save  as  small  a  sum  as  two  cents,  and  what 
was  once  considered  a  primal  law  of  property  has  been 
rudely  brushed  aside  for  the  benefit  of  the  Irish  tenant. 
Such  a  splendid  list  of  laws  for  the  amelioration  of  social 
and  industrial  conditions  were  never  before  placed  on  a 
statute  book.  In  no  other  age  could  they  have  been  possible. 
They  are  as  significant  of  the  era  as  its  motive  power.  They 
point  as  irresistibly  to  the  seven-leagued  strides  of  progress  as 
the  electric  light  by  the  side  of  a  candle,  and  tell  more  elo- 
quently than  the  tOngue  of  any  orator  of  the  lessening  gulf 
between  rich  and  poor. 

A  well-known  writer*  has  expressed  the  opinion  that  there 
is  nothing  in  history  to  correspond  to  the  improvement  in  the 
laboring  man's  condition.  ''For  the  first  time  in  the  history 
of  the  world,"  he  says,  *' millions  of  toiling  laborers  have 
been  able  to  collect  hundreds  of  thousands,  I  suppose,  indeed, 
millions  of  dollars,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  effect  to  their 
views  of  society."  This  statement  is  justified  by  a  reference 
to  the  incomes  of  some  of  the  great  English  trade  unions. 
In  1882  the  Amalgamated  Engineers  had  a  revenue  of 
$620,000,  with  a  cash  balance  on  hand  of  $840,000;  the 
Iron-Founders  had  an  income  of  $110,000;  the  Amalgamated 
Carpenters  of  $250,000  ;  the  Tailors  of  $90,000,  and  although 
these  sums  were  primarily  collected  for  provident  purposes, 
they  have  been  largely  used  to  advance  the  interests  of  labor 
in  other  ways.  The  weight  that  these  associations  possess 
may  be  also  seen  from  the  fact  that  the  Employers'  Liability 
Act  was  introduced  and   passed  at   their  behest,  and   their 

*  Professor  Simon  Newcomb. 


PROGRESS  OF  THE   WORKING   CLASSES.  65 

influence  extends  even  to  indirect  representation  at  Westmin- 
ster, as  in  the  well-known  instances  of  Mr.  Joseph  Arch, 
returned  by  the  agricultural  laborers,  and  Mr.  Tiiomas  Burt, 
member  for  Morpeth,  whose  constituency  levy  a  voluntary- 
annual  tax  upon  themselves  of  $2500  for  his  support. 

In  a  summary  of  the  national  growth  during  the  ten  years 
ending  1S85,  Mr.  Mulhall  shows  by  unimpeachable  statistics 
that  pauperism  decreased  in  the  United  Kingdom  fully  33  per 
cent.*  and  crime  36  per  cent.  ;  that  the  consumption  of 
intoxicants  declined  24  per  cent.,  and  the  number  of  chil- 
dren receiving  instruction  rose  from  8  to  12  per  cent,  of 
population,  while  the  savings  of  the  wage-earning  class  in- 
creased 82  per  cent. 

"We  find  undoubtedly,"  says  Mr.  Giflen,t  *'that  in 
longer  life,  in  the  increased  consumption  of  the  increased 
commodities  they  use,  in  better  education,  in  greater  free-/ 
doni  from  crime  and  pauperism,  and  in  increased  savings,  the' 
masses  of  the  people  are  better,  infinitely  better,  than  they 
were  fifty  years  ago."  And  he  adds  that  **  the  general  result 
is  a  marvel,  if  we  only  consider  for  a  moment  what  vices  of 
anarchy  and  misrule  in  society  had  to  be  rooted  out  to  make 
these  marvels."  Similar  opinions,  expressed  in  almost  similar 
words,  can  be  found  in  the  writings  and  speeches  of  nearly 
all  those  who  have  made  this  subject  the  field  of  their  study. 
The  testimony  as  to  improvement  is,  indeed,  so  direct,  con- 
vergent and  general  that  it  cannot  be  gainsaid ,  and  though 
many  dark  spots  of  squalor,  misery  and  wretchedness  yet 
remain,  it  is  fair  to  believe  that  these  are  of  a  less  deeper  dye 
than  before,  and  that  the  time  is  hastening  when  they  will 
bear  but  a  small  proportion  to  their  present  volume. 

Under  the  best  conditions  there  will  always  be  much  to 
deplore.  The  poor  will  always  be  with  us;  calamity,  when 
least  expected,  will  strike  the  individual  or  the  state,  and  as 


*  "Ten  Yenrs   of  National   Growth." — T/ie   Contemporary  RevieWt 
Deceml)er,  1886. 

f  Social  Science  Congress. 
5 


66  PROGRESS   OF   THE   WORKING   CLASSES. 

long  as  the  race  endures  there  will  be  folly  and  sin.  Progress 
has  no  power  to  eliminate  these  things,  but  it  can  alleviate 
some,  keep  others  within  bounds  and,  like  a  vigorous  body, 
throw  off  its  decaying  and  unassimilated  particles. 

In  this  rapid  review  of  what  the  two  English-speaking  na- 
tions have  accomplished  within  their  own  domains,  the  field 
of  vision  has  been  restricted  almost  exclusively  to  those  advan- 
tages the  sum  of  which  can  be  expressed  in  money  or  its 
equivalent.  No  mention  has  been  made  of  that  higher  pro- 
gress in  morals,  humanity,  and  manners,  without  which  the 
national  gain  would  be  but  a  lifeless  winning.  The  change 
which  prevails  in  every  strata  of  society,  the  deepened  interest 
in  works  of  mercy,  the  wider  taste  for  pure  literature,  the 
greater  kindness  to  children  and  animals,  the  refinement  of 
amusements,  the  unwillingness  to  inflict  punishment,  the 
growth  of  Sunday-schools,  the  stronger  love  for  nature,  the 
tenderness  for  the  erring,  all  prove  that  the  unseen  spirit  of 
charity  has  kept  step  with  the  material  advance.  We  are  yet 
very  far  from  doing  our  whole  duty,  but  that  righteousness 
which  exalteth  a  nation  has  grown  to  tenfold  its  former  pro- 
portions, and  frequently  manifests  itself  at  unlooked-for  times. 
Deeds  that  in  older  days  would  pass  unnoticed  now  call  down 
the  reprobation  of  the  world;  wealth  is  more  than  ever  before 
accounted  a  trust,  and  a  thousand  rills  of  beneficence  seek  to 
water  fljae  arid  d^.ert  of  poverty,  where  a  lifetime  ago  flowed 
scarcely  one.  The  treasures  of  science  and  art,  once  espe- 
cially reserved  for  the  rich,  are  now  laid  without  price  at  the 
feet  of  the  poor.  Discovery  pours  her  countless  blessings  into 
the  lap  of  all,  and  better,  perhaps,  for  mankind  than  any  of 
these  things,  that  greatest  of  all  Jjlessings,  peace,  oftener 
folds  her  tranquil  wings  over  lands  that  in  the  past  were  con- 
stantly tossed  by  turbulence  and  war^ 

The  deductions  from  the  facts,  figures,  and  opinions,  that 
have  so  far  been  presented,  are : 
(  First.    That  the  progress  of  the  wage-receiving  population 


INITIAL   FORCE  DUE  TO  CHRISTIANITY.  67 

during  the  last  forty  years,  on  every  line  of  advancement,  has 
been  unprecedented,  and  that  it  has  been  accomplished: 

A.  By  the  co-operation  of  capital  seeking  profit  through 
labor. 

sj^.  By  a  larger  sympathy  between  class  and  class,  expressed 
in  the  removal  of  many  unfair  social  conditions. 

Second.  That  if  the  advance  is  continued  in  the  same 
direction,  with  such  further  aids  as  experience  and  experi- 
ment suggest,  a  large  number  of  the  present  causes  for  dis- 
content in  the  ranks  of  industry  will  disappear,  and  others 
be  reduced  to  a  minimum. 

Third.  That  tlie  initial  force  for  the  advance  came  abso- 
lutely from  Christianiiy ;   that  its  velocity  has  been  greatly,* 
though  not  wholly  accelerated  by  Christianity,  and  that  it  is 
through  tlie  further  practical  application  of  Christian  prin- 
ciples that  we  must  look  for  its  continuous  advance. 

It  is  not  contended  by  these  deductions  that  human  society 
has  reached  to  a  high  level,  or  to  nearly  as  high  a  one  as  it 
should  have  attained  from  the  cumulative  experience  of  ages. 
The  past  of  all  peoples  and  of  all  nations ;  the  rise  and  fall 
of  empires ;  the  annals  of  peace  and  the  epics  of  war ;  the 
follies  of  governors  and  those  they  governed ;  the  counsels 
of  statesmen  ;  the  warnings  of  prophets ;  the  discoveries  of 
philosophers ;  and  the  teachings  of  sages  have  been .  open 
books  from  which  we  could  have  drawn  our  wisdorjK^^bove 
and  beyond  these  we  had  but  to  lift  up  our  eyes  to  the  Divine 
life  for  perfect  knowledge  and  direction,  for  the  model  by 
which  all  action  should  be  guided ;  the  type  after  which  all 
effort  should  be  fashioned,  and  the  principles  on  which  all 
society  should  be  ordered^^ 

We  might  have  leanred  generations  ago  that  the  burden  of 
the  oppressed  will  become  too  heavy  for  the  oppressor,  that 
those  who  take  up  the  sword  to  destroy  will  meet  destruction, 
that  the  wrongs  we  sow  will  ripen  into  a  ten-fold  harvest. 
And  it  could  also  have  become  a  part  of  our  knowledge,  had 
we  cared  to  possess  it  in  the  spirit  of  the  gospel,  that  the  rule 
of  mercy,  sympathy,  and  charity,  is  the  only  one  that  abides, 


bo  THE   PRESENT   TIME   THE   BEST. 

and  that  all  else,  however  tempting,  turns  to  ashes  of  bitter- 
ness and  disappointment.  We  have  been  slow,  dull  scholars, 
stumbling  along  in  blinchiess  and  groping  for  the  light  when 
the  light  was  above  us.  [But  unready  as  we  are  to  receive  and 
understand,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  present  hour  is  the 
best  one  that  the  working  classes  and  the  world  at  large  ever 
knew,  and  that  we  stand  at  the  dawn  of  a  glorious  day. 

The  pessimist  may  truthfully  point  to  an  enormous  residuum 
of  crime,  intemperance,  pauperism,  discontent,  and  injustice. 
He  may  adduce  riots,  strikes,  and  anarchical  doctrines,  to  show 
that  society  rests  on  a  slumbering  volcano,  ready  at  any  mo- 
ment to  burst  forth  and  overwhelm  ;  and  our  denials  must  be 
feeble.  Yet  though  there  are  still  earthquakes  and  volcanoes, 
and  it  may  be  the  fate  of  some  fair  city  to  be  destroyed  by 
these  to-morrow,  they  are  not  nearly  as  violent  as  in  the 
primeval  ages.  Great  carnivora  still  range  the  earth,  but  their 
area  becomes  yearly  more  restricted.  A  hundred  foul  diseases 
still  scourge  mankind,  but  the  black  plague  and  smallpox  have 
been  conquered ;  consumption,  cholera,  syphilis,  typhus,  and 
the  yellow  fever,  robbed  of  their  once  deadly  malignity,  and 
scores  of  minor  ills  reduced  to  harmlessness.  The  civilization 
of  to-day  will  probably  appear  as  crude  to  our  grandsons,  as 
that  of  our  grandfathers  seems  to  us,  yet  we  are  in  the  path 
of  improvement,  and  are  advancing  along  it  with  quickened 
step.  Therefore,  in  spite  of  those  who  look  only  on  the  dark 
side,  we  can  point  to  what  has  been  done  as  an  augury  of  the 
future,  and  so  with  renewed  faith  in  the  right,  a  larger  love, 
and  stronger  determination,  continue  to  do  all  that  men  can 
to  promote  the  general  application  of  Christianity,  not  only 
to  the  national,  social,  intellectual,  and  individual  life,  but 
also  to  industrialism,  and  thus  hasten  the  coming  **  kingdom 
of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

UNFAIR   SOCIAL-INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS,  AND  THEIR  REMOVAL. 

'^^  Moreover  the  profit  of  the  earth  is  for  all." — Ecclcs.  5  :  9. 
^*  It  see-US  to  nve  a  great  truth,  that  human  things  cannot  stand  on  selfish- 
ness, mechanical  uiilities,  economics,  and  law  courts;  that  if  there  i)c  not 
a  religious  element  Ui  the  relations  of  men,  such  relations  are  miserable, 
at>d  doomed  to  \\x\^^f-  Carlyle. 

There  is  a  wonderful  link  of  thought  between  the  greatest 
of  the  ancient  writers  and  the  most  distinguished  of  modern 
philanthropists,  wherein  both  state  the  duty  of  the  many  to 
the  individual. 

Nearly  four  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era,  Aris- 
totle said  that  every  community  is  established  for  the  sake  of 
some  good  end,  and  that  a  state  truly  deserving  the  name  must 
be  governed  by  such  wholesome  laws  as  to  place  a  hap])y  and 
virtuous  life  within  the  reach  of  all  its  citizens,  and  thus  by 
cultivating  the  better  parts  of  men  raise  them  in  the  scale  of 
being.  Lord  Shaftesbury,  unconsciously  following  the  same 
line  of  ideas,  said,  "all  that  society  can  do,  it  ought  to  do  to 
remove  difficulties  and  impediments,  to  give  every  man,  to 
the  extent  of  our  power,  full,  fair,  and  free  opportunity  so  to 
exercise  all  his  moral,  intellectual,  physical,  and  spiritual  en- 
ergies, that  he  may  without  let  or  hindrance,  be  able  to  do 
his  duty  in  that  state  of  life  to  which  it  has  pleased  God  to 
call  him." 

These  removable  difficulties  and  impediments  constitute, 
therefore,  those  unfair  social  and  industrial  conditions  or 
hindrances  to  a  successful  and  virtuous  life,  which  it  should 
be  the  first  object  of  society  to  clear  away,  and  a  primal 
Christian  obligation  of  wealth,  alone  and  in  conjunction  with 
government,  to  aid  in  so  doing. 

(69) 


70  INEQUALITY. 

rSut  before  defining  these  obstructions,  it  will  be  advisable 
to  mention  some  things  which  though  inequalities  are  not  in 
themselves  unfair;  for  there  is  both  a  preventable  and  a«  un- 
preventable  unfairness,  the  first  being  within  the  province  of 
man's  operations,  and  the  second  of  nature's.  ^One  of  these 
is  mental  and  bodily  inequality,  which  is  a  natural  condition, 
a  divine  law,  and  consequently  a  law  of  love.^  We  are  born 
with  unequal  mental  and  physical  powers;  we  pass  our  lives 
in  unequal  susceptibility  to  climatic  changes,  diseases,  and 
emotions;  with  unequal  powers  of  production,  reproduction, 
and  even  of  aspiration,  and  we  die  at  unequal  ages  from  un- 
equal causes. 

There  are  little  brooks  that  refresh  small  pastures ;  great 
rivers  that  bear  on  their  bosoms  the  commerce  of  a  state,  and 
deserts  unmoistened  by  a  drop  of  water.  (So  there  are  some 
whose  thoughts  direct  the  workshop  and  the  school-room, 
others  whose  statesmanship  guides  the  course  of  empires,  and 
again  those  who  are  almost  incapable  of  formulating  an  idea 
unconnected  from  their  bodily  wants.  To  some  is  given 
strength,  to  others  wisdom ;  one  can  readily  accumulate 
knowledge,  and  apply  it  to  his  purposes ;  another  with  diffi- 
culty learns  the  rudiments  of  education^  iThere  are  insects 
and  elephants,  small  islands  and  continents,  shrubs  and  forest 
trees,  pebbles  and  mountains,  and  ''  one  glory  of  the  sun,  and 
another  glory  of  the  moon,"  everywhere  diversity  diversified, 
and  diversity  is  inequality. 

^Iriequality  within  the  restriction  of  the  law  is  the  corollary 
of  liberty.  I  A  community  of  slaves  or  prisoners  is  a  level 
plain ;  one  of  freemen  a  landscape,  with  variation  of  hill, 
dale,  river,  forest,  and  cultivated  field ;  so  that  until  every 
man  is  endowed  with  uniform  health,  strength,  mentality, 
length  of  life  and  powers  of  sense,  there  must  be  a  difference 
in  human  attainments  and  the  results  that  flow  from  them ; 
for  therein  is  the  primal  cause  of  disparity. 

\  One  of  these  results  is  that  some  persons  are  able  to  acquire 
property  with  more  facility  than  otliers.  '  The  great  artist  with 
a  yard  of  canvas  and  a  few  dollars'  worth  of  pigments  can 


EFFECTS  OF  INKQUALITY.  71 

produce  a  picture  in  a  few  weeks  that  will  sell  for  a  larger  sum 
than  a  house  painter  can  earn  in  half  a  lifetime.  The  great 
poet  will  be  paid  more  for  writing  his  thoughts  in  verse,  on  a 
piece  of  paper,  than  the  ordinary  clerk  can  get  for  a  whole 
year's  careful  penmanship  ;  and  the  architect,  by  applying  his 
knowledge  of  strains  and  forces,  can  design  on  a  dozen  sheets 
of  card-board  an  imperishable  possibility  of  ornament  or 
utility,  for  which  a  community  will  willingly  pay  tlie  price  of 
a  hundred  workmen's  earnings  through  many  months. 

Similarly,  by  a  fine  expression  of  music  or  the  passions,  the 
musician  and  actor  can  convert  such  common  things  as  sounds 
and  emotions  into  the  means  of  acquiring  wealth,  c-ind  every 
/possessor  of  mental  ability  has  the  power,  in  accordaiice  with 
\its  degree  and  scarcity,  of  doing  the  same.  The  value  of 
their  work  is  supposed  to  be  determined  by  their  earnings, 
and  that  value  is  in  nearly  every  case  governed  by  their 
natural  and  unequal  endowments,  rendered  available  by  cul- 
ture.'^ 

Others  again,  and  they  are  by  far  tlie  larger  number,  pos- 
sess only  that  ordinary  attribute  of  health  and  manhood, 
bodily  strength,  and  though  it  is  a  marketable  commodity 
(to  use  the  phrase  of  political  economists),  as  much  as  any- 
thing else,  its  abundance,  and  the  fact  that  its  equivalent  can 
be  obtained  through  mechanical  forces,  makes  it  less  valuable 
than  the  intellectual  attainments.  [  If  strength  were  as  rare  as 
genius,  strength  would  perhaps  command  the  profit  on  its 
labor  that  genius  now  does,  and  the  strong  man  and  the  great 
mind  change  places  in  the  world's  respect ;  but  while  the 
contrary  is  the  case  it  must  continue  to  occupy  a  subordinate 
position  and  the  relation  to  genius  that  granite  does  to  gold. 
From  all  this  it  follows  that  if  one  person  acquires  wealth  by 
personal  ability,  and  another  nothiiig  beyond  food,  shelter, 
.  and  clothing,  it  is  in  many  instances  only  an  inequality 
resulting  from  the  operation  of  natural  laws,  or  otherwise-iin 
unpreventable  unfairness,  that  institutions  cannot  remove.! 

\^While  the  justice  of  a  man's  claims  to  his  own  earnings  is 
only  controverted  by  a  few,  there  is  a  larger  class  who  deny 


72  ADMINISTRATIVE    ABILITY. 

his  right  to  employ  his  accumulations  in  conjunction  with 
others,  so  as  to  make  a  profit  out  of  the  combination.  Yet 
if  one  man's  savings  afford  fifty  others  the  means  of  labor  by 
furnishing  them  with  raw  material  and  tools  (whether  the 
most  complex  machinery,  or  a  simple  hammer  and  a  keg  of 
nails) ;  and  especially  if  after  giving  them  immediate  or 
deputed  direction  he  takes  the  risk  of  subsequent  profit  or 
loss,  it  requires  very  little  i>erception  of  equity  to  determine 
that  he  is  entitled  to  some  return  above  the  ruling  interest- 
rates.  For  labor  is  not  the  only  element  necessary  to  produce 
profit.  Even  where  tools  and  materials  are  furnished,  an 
administrative  and  distributive  capacity  is  required,  as  well 
as  a  product  creative  one,  before  an  advance  over  the  cost  of 
making  can  be  obtained.  On  these,  quite  as  much  as  skill  in 
workmanship,  depends  the  final  returns,  and  the  combination 
of  such  qualities  is  so  scarce  as  to  make  them  highly  valu- 
able.* Indeed  the  possession  of  great  administrative  powers 
is  as  infrequent  in  proportion  to  the  number  engaged  in  busi- 
ness, as  are  the  higher  achievements  in  those  who  follow  art, 
literature,  music,  medicine,  or  the  law.  A  It-is  stated  that  out 
of  one  hundred  firms  on  Long  Wharf  in  Boston,  in  forty 
years,  only  five  escaped  failure;  that  out  of  one  thousand 
accounts  in  a  leading  bank,  in  the  same  period,  only  six 
remained  good,  a  large  proportion  of  the  balance  being 
wrecked  on  some  of  the  many  rocks  and  shoals  that  beset  the 
sea  of  mercantile  adventure.  Napoleon  said  he  had  plenty 
of  generals  who  could  manoeuvre  10,000  men,  two  or  three 
who  could  direct  ^0,000,  but  not  one  who  could  successfully 
command  80,000.  V  Large  profits  come  to  the  men  who  suc- 
cessfully controL-Hie  armies  of  labor,  smaller  profits  to  those 
who  handle  its  divisions,  and  in  a  proportionate  degree  to  its 
captains  of  companies;  or,  to  change  the  form  of  expression, 
to  those  whose  natural  abilities  are  greater  than  their  fellows'. 

*  "  If  successful  managers  of  cotton  or  woolen  mills  were  as  plenTiM 
in  proportion  to  the  demand  for  them,  as  ordinary  artisans  in  the  propor 
tion  to  the  demand,for  them,  then  the  former  would  gti  no  higher  reward" 
than  the  lUtterj^^^Prof.  Laughlin.  Mills'  "  Pclilical  Economy,-'  Book  2 
Chapter  4, '^^ayn  2. 


COMPENSATION   TO   CATITAL.  <3 

CNor  is  it  necessary  to  be  deeply  versed  in  wliat  Carlyle 
caried  *'the  dismal  science"  to  see  tliat  if  tliere  were  no 
capitalists,  industry  would  either  revert  to  its  most  primitive 
conditions,  or  everything  would  have  to  be  the  property  of 
everybody  through  equal  i)articipation  in  state  ownership, 
and- that  the  moment  one  man  saved  a  part  of  his  share,  the 
accumulation  of  cajjital  would  commence  again  and  the 
balance  be  destroyed,  ^apital,  seeking  addition  through 
labor,  has  furnished  labor  with  the  means  of  livelihood,  and 
by  stimulating  material  progress  has  so  increased  the  comforts 
and  conveniences  of  existence  as  to  add  to  the  well-being  of 
the  many  and  render  modern  society  a  possibility.^  Its  wise 
employment  has  been  such  a  manifest  benefit,  that  any  argu- 
ment holding  to  the  contrary  is  not  worth  consideration,  and 
the  proposition  is  in  no  way  invalidated  by  the  fact  that  capi. 
tal  has  always  retained  an  unjust  proportion  of  the  profit  madei 
in  conjunction  with  labor,  and  treated  its  co-ordinate  unfairly.l 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  has  said:  "A  desire  for  property  is 
one  of  the  elements  of  our  nature,"  *  and  that  the  right  of 
private  property  "  harmonizes  with  the  human  constitution, 
as  divinely  ordained."  Every  strike  of  workmen  for  higher 
wages  is  an  expression  of  this  desire,  a  demand  for  a  larger 
share  of  the  property  they  assist  in  producing ;  and  if  it  is 
laudable  for  them  to  seek  a  better  payment  for  the  use  of 
their  natural  powers,  it  cannot  be  a  sin  for  the  capitalist- 
employer  also  to  try  and  obtain  a  commensurate  return  for 
the  ability  which  he  displays  in  the  employment  of  his  sav- 
ings and  talents.  A  condemnation  would  apply  to  both  with 
equal  force. 

It  is  true  that  there  is  a  growing  class  who  accept  Proud- 
hon's  dictum  that  "property  is  robbery,"  but  this  doctrine 
must  not  be  taken  as  a  serious  affirmation  of  belief.  It  is 
rather  a  bubble  of  freedom,  the  effervescence  of  men  unused 
to  liberty,  than  the  expression  of  a  substantial  opinion.  fl[T 
it  is  correct,  half  the  virtues  would  have  to,  be  abolished",-^    - 

*" Social  Statisiics,"  pages  151-2.^'^^^  VlAufl^ 


74  FAIR   WAGES. 

for  *'  to  consume  daily  a  little  less  than  we  produce  is  the 
only  source  of  capital  whether  small  or  great,"*  and  if  we 
consume  all,  self-denial  (which  provides  for  sickness,  old  age, 
children  and  dependent  relatives  by  refraining  from  the  grati- 
fication of  the  moment)  must  become  extinct;  active  benevo- 
lence, which  enables  the  giver  to  use  his  accumulations  in 
good  works,  an  impossibility;  and  every  incentive  that  looks 
to  the  future  for  its  reward,  a  vanishing  motive  in  human 
conduct.  Carried  to  its  ultimate,  it  would  make  the  world  a 
carousal-hall  for  eating  and  drinking,  enforce  a  consumption 
of  each  day's  labor  before  the  rising  of  another  sun,  and 
make  the  possessor  of  a  second  suit  of  clothes  a  robber.| 

If  the  possession  of  earned  wealth,  whether  iii  the  shape 
of  capital  or  property,  is  an  admitted  natural  riglit^it  follows 
that  it  is  not  incumbent  on  its  owner  to  part  wftTrit  by  the 
payment  of  wages  to  his  laborer  in  excess  of  fair  earnings, 
which  may  be  defined  as  a  just  share  of  the  additional  value 
given  to  a  product  by  the  skill  or  labor  bestowed  on  it.  Thus, 
if  the  per  cent,  of  unit  cost  of^a  yard  of  cotton  was  72.70  for 
materials,  20.53  for  labor,  1.96  for  expense  of  management, 
and  4.81  for  rent,  insurance,  etc.,  and  the  selling  price  was 
only  the  total  of  these  sums,  an  advance  of  wages  would  be 
a  direct  loss  of  capital  to  the  amount  of  the  advance.  I  ]5ut 
if  the  market  value  of  a  yard  of  cotton  was  25  per  cent, 
more  than  cost,  the  workman  would  be  justified  in  asking 
better  payment  for  his  labor,  or  otherwise  for  a  share  of  the 
profit  through  increase  of  wages.  On  all  manufactures  on 
which  there  is  unrestrained  competition,  a  moral  determina- 
tion of  the  value  of  labor  would  adjust  itself  to  profit,  and  it 
is  not  an  unfairness  for  capital  to  refuse  an  advance  when  the 
returns  only  cover  first  cost  and  reasonable  earnings  for  tools 
and  administrative  competency.) 

As  an  instance  in  point,. the  gross  profit  on  the  labor  and 
capital  of  7782  persons  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  straw 


*  E.  About.     *'  Handbook   of  .Social  Economy,"  page    272,  English 
translation. 


INHERITED   WEALTH. 


7/ 


goods  in  Massachusetts  was  in  1882,  after  the  payment  of 
wages,  ^822,749.  Interest  and  expenses  of  management 
reduced  this  sum  to  $3911  net,  or  a  little  less  than  50  cents 
for  the  year  on  each  employ^;  and,  although  their  wages 
only  averaged  ;$243.72  each,  the  slightest  increase  would  have 
imiJaired  the  capital  fundlso  that  under  the  conditions  of 
that  particular  industry  $5.00  a  week  was  fair  earnings,  thougii 
insufficient  to  support  life  in  comfort.  /The  remedy  for  low 
wages  was  here  evidently  beyond  the  employer's  control,  and 
the  inadequacy  of  remuneration  an  incident  of  trade  in  which 
capital  was  an  equal  sufferer  with  labor.  In  common  with 
man)*  other  inequalities  it  arose  from  some  natural  cause  that 
capital  could  not  amend,  and  so  was  not  a  remediable  unfair- 
ness within  the  meaning  here  used. 

Having  thus  disposed  of  some  things  which  are  frequently 
in  themselves  the  foundation  of  differences  in  industrial  con- 
ditions, and  which  on  examination  are  found  to  originate  in 
the  unpreventable,  there  remain  others  to  which  that  term 
cannot  properly  apply. 

QThe  generalizations  so  far  presented  have  been  based  on  the 
supposition  that  every  man  is  the  creator  of  his  own  capital, 
either  directly,  by  inherent  powers,  coupled  with  self-denial, 
or  indirectly,  by  combination  with  those  who  possess  other 
wealth-making  qualifications^^  But  as  wealth  is  constantly 
accumulating,  even  faster  in  civilized  lands  than  population, 
and  it  does  not  die  with  its  owner,  a  larger  amount  is  every 
day  acquired  by  inheritance,  and  thereby  comes  into  the  pos- 
session of  some  one  who  has  had  nothing  to  do  with  its  crea- 
tion. It  is  this  consideration  that  makes  the  problem  of 
possession  a  difficult  one;  for  if  every  man  had  only  what  he 
earned,  be  it  large  or  small,  the  discontent  of  the  small  owner 
would  be  as  unreasonable  as  to  inveigh  against  the  day's 
variability  of  sunshine,  the  season's  rains,  or  any  other 
natural  and  irremediable  inequality  resulting  from  natural 
laws. 

There  is  much  to  be  said  in  favor  of  the  right  of  the 
creiator  of  just  wealth  to  leave  it  to  whom  he  pleases,  and 


76  <'  EQUITY    OF    PROPERTY. 

much  more  for  its  limitation.  It  is  impossible  to  limit  the 
natural  gifts  or  disabilities  with  which  we  are  born/UDUt  it 
might  be  possible,  and  without  injustice,  to  restrict  each 
one's  individual  share  of  the  world's  wealth^ "  Wealth 
created  by  its  owner  is  an  index  of  his  personal  power,  and 
the  manhood  necessary  to  the  accumulation  saves  it  from 
being  contemptible,  while  it  preserves  its  possessor  from 
degrading  vices."*  But,  to  quote  Mr.  Froude's  words,  "if 
rich  men,  as  is  often  the  case,  are  contented  to  live  in  idle 
indulgence  and  do  nothing  to  deserve  it,  the  question  will 
rise,  and  will  force  its  way  into  politics,  why  should  one  man 
have  so  much  and  another  so  little?" 

For  a  child  to  be  born  to  a  life  of  poverty,  to  have  to  strug- 
gle for  its  bread  almost  from  the  cradle,  to  be  doomed  through 
youth  and  manhood  to  such  a  round  of  unremunerative  em- 
ployment, that  age  finds  him  without  any  recourse  from  star- 
vation except  the  precarious  gleanings  of  the  street  or  the  cold 
community  charity  of  the  poor-house ;  to  pass  from  birth  to 
death,  as   millions  do,  engaged  all  the  time  in  a  sharp  fight 
with   his  fellows  for  the  bare  necessities  of  existence,  is  an 
unfair   social   condition    for  which  there    is  and  must  be  a 
repjedy.t 
Aj/>  (^Why  should  one  child  come  into  the  world  weighted  so 
O     tremendously,  and  another,  perhaps  his  inferior  in  natural  en- 
r>r -^dowments,  have  every  step  of  his  progress  through  life  made 
^     smooth  and  easy  by  a  wealth  he  did  not  win?     It  cannot  be 
answered  by  asking  that  other  questiol^  Why  is  one^child 

*  Belirend's  "  Socialism  and  Christianity,"  page  169. 

f  "  Notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  done,  and  all  that  seems  likely  to 
be  done,  in  the  extension  of  franchises,  a  few  are  born  to  great  riches, 
and  liie  many  to  a  penury  made  only  more  grating  by  contrast.  No  longer 
enslaved  or  made  dependent  by  force  of  law,  the  great  majority  are  so  by 
force  of  poverty;  they  are  still  chained  to  a  place,  to  an  occupation,  and 
to  conformity  with  the  will  of  an  employer,  and  debarred  l)y  the  accident 
of  birth,  both  from  the  enjoyments,  and  from  the  mental  and  moral  ad- 
vantages, which  others  inherit  without  exertion,  and  independently  of 
desert.  That  this  is  an  evd  equal  to  almost  any  of  those  against  which 
mankind  have  hitherto  struggled  the  poor  are  not  wrong  in  believing.  Is 
it  a  necessary  evil  ?  "  "Chapters  on  Socialism,"  by  John  Stuart  Mill, 
*•  Fortnightly  Review,"  Feb.,  1879,  P^g^  222. 


INEQUALITIES   OF  WEALTH.  77 

blind,  a  mute,  or  a  cripple,  while  another  has  the  full  use  of 
all  his  senses?  or,  Why  is  one  deficient  in  intelligence  and 
strength,  while  another  is  strong  in  body  and  alert  in  mind? 
Laws  give  neither  sight  nor  speech,  but  they  can  decree  that 
the  little  grasp  of  the  infant  shall  not  clutch  a  hundred 
houses  and  thousands  of  acres  of  land ;  it  will  make  a  bet- 
ter citizen  if  it  contributes  in  some  way  to  the  work  of  its 
generation,  and  for  the  good  of  all  there  must  be  greater 
equality.  As  Mr.  Thornton  asks,*  shall  we  not  "question 
the  propriety  of  a  division  of  labor  which  devolves  upon  'two- 
thirds  of  the  community  the  whole  duty  of  supporting,  and 
leaves  the  other  third  with  comparatively  little  to  do  but  to 
ported?" 
lere  can  be  no  suspicion  of  communism  therefore  in  in- 
quiring if  these  conditions  of  inherited  wealth  are  inequalities 
founded  on  a  natural  and  divine  law,  or  on  an  unwise  and 
human  ordainment,  which  afflicts  industrialism  by  intensify- 
ing the  common  antagonism  between  capital  and  labor;  for 
if  they  are  based  on  the  former  they  are  unalterable,  but  if  on 
the  latter  it  will  be  an  advantage,  and  not  a  wrong  to  change 
themj 

The  Bible  says  that  a  direct  prohibition  was  delivered  from 
Sinai  against  the  transmitted  accumulation  of  the  source  of  all 
wealth,  and  as  the  Israelites,  to  whom  this  prohibition  was 
directed,  were  a  i)astoral  i)eople  and  their  wealth  nearly  all 
pastoral,  the  effect  of  such  an  injunction  must  have  been  the 
proscription  of  large  flocks  and  herds  under  one  ownership 
for  more  than  fifty  years,  or  otherwise  deterrent  not  only  to 
land  accumulation  but  to  the  chief  form  of  their  personal 
property.  At  the  expiration  of  every  fifty  years  the  land  was 
to  be  returned  to  its  original  owners ;  **  the  land  shall  not  be 
sold  for  ever;  for  the  land  is  mine."f  And  in  the  year  of 
the  Jubilee  every  man  was  to  be  returned  *' unto  his  posses- 
sion."    The  object  of  this  law  was  evidently  "  to  restore,  as 


*  Tliornton  "On  Labor,"  pnge  21. 

t  Lfv.  25  :  23.     See  Prof.  BisscU's  "  Biblical  Antiquities,"  pp.  56,  230. 


78  LAW   OF   ENTAIL. 

far  as  legislation  could  go,  that  equality  in  outward  circum- 
stances which  was  instituted  in  the  first  settlement  of  the  land 
by  Joshua." 

It  is  impossible  to  cut  off  the  tops  of  mountains  to  fill  in 
the  valleys,  but  when  mountains  stand  in  the  path,  a  highway 
can  be  made  through  them.  If  the  apparently  insuperable 
obstacle  of  a  continent  obstructs  the  channel  of  commerce, 
it  can  be  cut  through.  The  mountain  and  the  continent  re- 
main practically  intact,  while  an  improved  circulation  of 
commerce  and  wealth  ensues.  Cannot  the  same  be  done  with 
the  obstruction  of  large  properties  by  declaring  that  death 
shall  dissolve  a  specific  part  of  the  accumulation  of  a  life,  for 
the  good  of  those  who  are  to  follow?  "The  withdrawal  of 
the  man  demands  the  disintegration  of  his  fortune ;  its  speedy 
return  to  the  vast  industrial  territory  from  which  it  was  gath- 
ered is  as  much  a  law  of  nature  as  the  burial  of  the  body  when 
the  spirit  has  departed.  The  earth  belongs  to  the  living,  not 
to  the  dead."  * 

This  redistribution  is  at  present  only  slowly  and  partially 
accomplished  within  the  family,  and  can  be  deferred  for  a 
long  time  by  the  wishes  of  the  dead  owner.  In  those  coun- 
tries where  the  law  of  entail  prevails  it  is  frequently  deferred 
indefinitely,  or  as  long  as  there  is  a  single  lineal  descendant 
to  receive  the  transmission.  Neither  is  there  anything  in  our 
laws  to  prevent  the  continual  passing  of  large  fortunes  from 
the  individual  to  the  individual,  and  although  its  prevention 
has  not  yet  been  an  urgency,  the  rapid  appropriation  of  land, 
by  depriving  labor  of  its  great  chance  to  escape  from  an 
initial  condition  of  dependency  as  a  wage-receiver,  may  soon 
make  it  one.  That  such  a  law  would  be  in  contravention  of 
political  and  social  economy  as  the  mass  of  mankind  now 
understands  it,  is  true.  It  is  so  with  any  departure  from  what 
are  considered  established  principles.  If  King  John  could 
have  expressed  himself  in  modern  phraseology  at  Runnymede, 
his  reply  to  the  demand  of  the  barons  for  a  restriction  of  the 

*  Behrcnd's  "  Socialism  and  Christianity,"  page  169. 


LEGISLATION.  79 

powers  of  the  crown  would  probably  have  been  that  it  was  a 
violation  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  ownership,  a  per- 
sistence in  which  would  upset  everything  mundane  and  phmge 
the  kingdom  into  disorder  and  anarchy.  When  Henry  Vlll. 
made  a  distribution  of  the  property  of  the  church,  it  was  an 
undoubted    infraction   of  vested    interests,    unsupported   by 


lawful  precedent,  and  except  for  the  English  anteriority  the 
same  may  be  said  of  the  Italian  confiscation  in  recent  years. 
If  new  conditions  produce  concurrent  evils,  they  must  be 


11  new  conuiiioiis  prouucc  coiicurreiit  cviis,  iiicy  must  i^c  / 
met  by  new  remedies.  uEvery  curb  imposed  on  the  few  by  the  t^ 
many  for  the  good  of  all  has  been  an  interference  with  cer- 
tain supposedJj5i^SJofJheJ£w.  The  restriction  of  the  hours 
of  labor,  the  compulsory  ventilation  of  workshops,  tlie  inspec- 
tion of  mines,  the  prohibition  of  juvenile  labor,  the  reprcs- 
ision  of  the  sale  of  intoxicants,  were  all  at  some  time  infrac- 
tions of  ordinary  conditions,  interpositions  against^  some 
particular  class  of  property  for  the  benefit  of  society*  Yet 
such  a  conservative  as  the  Duke  of  Argyle  in  his  **  Reign  of 
Law"  calls  the  factory  legislation  of  England  one  of  the 
greatest  discoveries  of  the  century  in  the  science  of  govern- 
ment, though  it  was  as  bitterly- opposed  on  the  ground  of  its 
infringement  on  supposed  private  rights  as  any  reform  of  the 
period.  The  land  system  of  England  and  Ireland  is  even 
now  melting  away,  and  in  its  dissolution  property  will  be  a 
heavy  sufferer.  Owners  are  already  preparing  themselves  for 
the  inevitable,  and  if  they  can  accept  this,  all  other  limita- 
tions will  be  comparatively  palatable.!^  Circumstances  are 
compelling  them  to  admit  that  there  is  a  higher  law  than 
that  of  inheritance,  and  though  they  may  declare  it  unjust, 
they  are  yielding  to  necessity 

The  genius  of  invention  is  one  of  the  rarest  of  all  faculties, 
but  the  right  of  the  inventor  to  ownership  in  his  discovery  is 
limited  to  seventeen  years,  after  which  it  becomes  general 
property.     The  ripest  scholarship,  the  most  pregnant  ideas, 

the  liveliest  intellectual  fancies,  when  committed  to  print, ^ 

can  only  be  held  as  the  private  property  of  the  author  for  a 
period  designated  by  the  state  (twenty-eight  years  for  copy- 


80  RIGHTS   OF   PROPERTY. 

right,  fourteen  years  renewal),  after  which  he  is  divested  of 
them.     Have  the  earnings  of  one  kind  of  ability  a  greater 

nctity  than  that  of  another?  And  if  the  inventor's  and 
,  .iithor's  heirs  are  totally  deprived  of  participation  in  the 
\  '  resulting  profits  of  their  kinsman's  talents,  would  it  be  wrong 
to  take  something  from  the  legatees  of  the  capitalist,  mer- 
chant, and  stockholder,  and  apply  the  unneeded  surplus  of 
extinct  effort  to  the  immediate  furtherance  of  social  wel- 
fare ?  * 

A  factor  that  is  seldom  considered  has  also  recently  come 
into  play  in  the  problem  of  accumulation.  Until  modern 
conditions  of  society  gave  security  to  tenure,  property  of  all 
kinds  was  constantly  changing  hands  either  by  seizure  with- 
out the  color  of  the  law,  or  by  proscription,  escheat,  and 
revolution. 

Mattliew  of  Paris  tells  us  that  King  John  took  one-seventh 
of  the  movables  of  lay  and  spiritual  peers  for  his  own  use. 
Edward  II.  stripped  the  Templars  of  their  houses  and  lands, 
and  the  abuse  of  purveyance,  or  extortion  of  the  goods  of 
the  people  for  the  service  of  king  or  state,  was  not  finally 
abolished  until  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  The  personal  prop- 
erty of  the  Jews  in  the  middle  ages  was  always  subject  to 
seizure,  and  any  unusual  wealth  was  sure  to  arouse  the  avarice 
of  the  powerful,  and  result  in  a  confiscation  of  some  part  of 
it.  The  Cromwellian  settlement  of  Ireland  carries  with  it  its 
own  meaning ;  the  terrible  thirty  years  war  actually  destroyed 
all  personal  property  throughout  Germany;  Napoleon  effectu- 
•jr^  ally  prevented  its  accumulation  in  Europe  for  twenty-five 
r\J  years;  and  the  slavery  rebellion  almost  annihilated  the  pre- 
vious increase  of  our  Southern  States. 

Certainly  these  things  may  be  of  the  future  as  well  as  of 
the  past,  though  it  can  with  reasonable  safety  be  said  that 
accumulation  is  not  likely  to  be  disturbed  by  such  occurrences 


*  This  is  done  in  Great  Britain  by  what  are  generally  called  "the 
death  duties,"  and  it  has  more  than  once  been  proposed  by  men  who 
were  not  socialists  to  fix  them  on  an  ascending  scale. 


RIGHT  OF  INHERITANCE.  81 

to  as  great  an  extent  as  formerly.  That  being  admitted,  it 
follows  that  one  of  tlie  chief  preventives  against  past  increase 
has  been  largely  eliminated. 

(^he  question,  therefore,  as  a  whole  resolves  itself  into  a 
determination  of  tlie  equities  of  the  creator  of  pro[)erly  ver- 
sus the  many.*     Has  he  absolute  claim  over  it,  or  only  a  life- 
trust  ?f  Has  not  every  child  a  just  demand  on  some  of  the 
wealtlt  increase  of  the  past?     He  is  the  heir  of  all  i)reserved 
literjfture,  art,  science,  and  invention ;  he  has  an  acknowledged  . 
right  to  benefit  himself  by  the  treasures  of  all  former  intcl-/ 
lects;  would  it  not  be  as  fair  to  deprive  him  of  the  use  of  the 
steam-engine  or  the  telephone,  because  he  had  no  part  in  their  | 
invention,  as  to  deny  a  share  of  the  world's  wealth  because  he 
is  born  outside  of  its  pale?     Law  and  established  usages  say, 
No.     Do  nature  and  natural  law  say.  Yes? 

Nature  says,  all  things  return  to  the  earth  or  their  original 
elements,  to  be  again  the  common  property  of  mankind.  The 
accumulation  of  waters  gathered  by  the  rivers  flows  to  the 
sea,  to  be  distilled  and  scattered  again  in  a  myriad  of  drops 
over  the  land ;  the  leaves  that  fall  from  the  trees  are  blown 
by  a  thousand  winds  to  enrich  other  soils ;  the  bees  store  their 
magazine  of  honey  for  the  general  use  of  the  hive's  unborn 
larvae;  the  ant  its  granary  for  the  coming  community. 
Nature  increases,  but  returns  her  increase  to  invigorate  the 
future ;  man  accumulates  and  tries  to  hold  for  his  personal 
descendants  more  than  they  can  rightfully  use.  He  has 
**  made  property  of  things  which  never  ought  to  be  property, 
and  absolute  property  where  only  a  qualified  property  ought 

to  exist Private  property,  in  every  defence  made  of 

it,  is  supposed  to  mean  the  guarantee  to  individuals  of  the 
fruits  of  their  own  labor  and  abstinence.  The  guarantee  to 
them  of  the  fruits  of  the  labor  and  abstinence  of  others, 
transmitted  to  them  without  any  merit  or  exertion  of  their 

*  "  We  talk  of  rights ;  but  rights  are  al)stract  and  the  world  is  prac- 

I    tical.     There  are  only  so  many  concrete  rights  in  the  world  as  there  is 

power  to  enforce." — J,  A.  Froude,  "The  Poiilics  of  To  day  and  Long 

Ago?' 


RIGHT   OF   INHERITANCE. 

own,  is  not  of  the  essence  of  the  institution,  but  a  mere  inci- 
dental consequence,  which,  when  it  reaches  a  certain  height, 
does  not  promote,  but  conflicts  with  the  ends  which  render 
private  property  legitimate."  * 

Those  who  seek  a  true  answer  to  the  question  presented  here, 
.  must  not  decide  from  the  experience  of  the  little  isthmus  on 
which  we  stand,  but  first  ascend  to  **some  peak  in  Darien," 
with  the  Atlantic  a^^istory  behind,  and  the  inimitable  Pacific 
of  futurity  beforeij    From  that  summit  they  will  see  that  the 
\  social  formation  oi  the  world  has  been  as  distinct  as  its  geo- 
logical;  tliat  the  basis  of  Roman  life  and  polity  was  to  its 
citizens,  an  order  of  things  that  would  never  pass  away;  that 
slavery  and  serfdom  seemed  an  unalterable  law  to  millions  of 
masters  and  slaves  for  centuries/  and  that  the  figliting  and 
freebooting  of  the  Middle  Ages  appeared  to  baron  and  free- 
lance, as  permanent  and  fixed  a  condition,  as  manufacturing 
and  money  getting  does  to  the  merchant  of  to-day.     Yet  the 
old  order  changed  and  gave  place  to  the  new,  the  new  order 
I  again  became  the  old  and  another  succeeded  it,  and  it  will  be 
i  so  as  long  as  man  shall  endure.     What  is  to  supersede  the 
'  present  cannot  be  answered  by  finite  knowledge,  but  in  the 
words  of  the  author  of  "  Gesta  Christi,"f  **It  is  not  to  be 
assumed,  as  is  done  by  most  writers  on  this  subject,  that  the 
modern  form  of  the  distribution  of  wealth  is  the  final  and 
perfect  one,  and  that  society  as  it  is  now  is  substantially  what 
it  must  be  in  all  coming  ages,  or  what  our  Lord  contemplated 
in  his  future  'kingdom  of  heaven.'  " 

The  first  natural  right  of  the  child  being  cared  for,  in  pro- 
viding that  he  shall  not  be  a  disinherited  brother,  the  next 
consideration  is  his  encompassment.  Is  he  getting  his  share 
of  pure  air  and  water ;  of  the  golden  beams  of  sunshine,  of 
cleanly  surroundings,  influences,  and  healthful  play ;  for  in 


*  J.  S.  Mill,  "  Principles  of  Political  Economy,"  Book  2,  Chapter  i, 
Section  3. 

f  Brace,  "  Gesta  Christi,"  page  93. 


y 

PURE  SURROUNDINGS.  83 

these  as  in  other  matters  social  and  industrial  obligations  are 
intertwined  too  closely  to  be  separated. 

CAs  natural  characteristics  are  determined  by  environment, 
so  in  a  still  greater  degree  is  the  moral  status  and  well-being 
of  the  individual  influenced  by  his  domestic  domicile.  It  is 
always  difficult  for  a  person  to  rise  above  tlie  level  of  his  sur- 
Toundin^s.j  They  imperceptibly  assimilate  him  until  he  be- 
comes a  part  of  them.  If  they  are  pure  they  will  purify  ;  if 
vicious  they  will  stain.  A  vessel  may  be  plated  with  gold  or 
copper,  as  either  metal  is  placed  in  the  battery.  In  both  cases 
the  action  is  unseen,  but  the  precipitation  commences  as  soon 
as  the  current  is  connected,  and  the  result  is  very  quickly 
visible.  In  the  same  way  men  are  coated  by  pure  or  base 
influences.  If  they  have  to  pass  their  non-working  and  sleep- 
ing life  in  wretched  homes,  with  material  filth  and  impurity 
on  every  side,  in  courts  and  alleys  that  reek  with  noisome- 
ness,  in  unwholesome  rooms  into  which  the  sunlight  and  sweet 
air  of  heaven  never  penetrate,  with  nothing  of  beauty,  noth- 
ing of  noble  desire  for  the  eye  to  rest  upon,  it  would  be  ask- 
ing a  violation  of  natural  laws  to  expect  that  they  could  be 
otherwise  than  their  habitations.  IJut  if  they  have  clean 
houses,  with  abundance  of  pure  air,  water,  and  light,  if  they 
are  surrounded  with  the  decencies  of  life,  and  as  far  as  possi- 
ble, with  the  loveliness  of  nature's  simple  things,  then  they 
will  unknowingly  imbibe  aspiration  ;  home,  work,  and  the 
world,  will  have  meanings  never  before  understood,  and  the 
possibilities  of  life  will  bloom  and  unfold  unceasingly. 

If  such  are  the  effects  on  the  man,  what  must  they  be  on 
the  child?  Its  receptivity  is  incessant.  Night  and  day  it  is 
thirstily  drinking  in  all  it  sees,  hears,  and  feels.  Every  sense 
is  indiscriminately  seizing  and  absorbing  knowledge  of  good 
and  evil.  If  there  is  little  except  evil  to  absorb,  evil  must  be 
the  product.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  quote  the  statistics  of 
foreign  cities,  or  even  such  a  startling  record  as  that  of  Glas- 
gow, where  in  1883  out  of  114,759  families,  40,820  lived  in 
single  rooms,  shared  in  about  7,000  cases  by  some  other  family, 
•while  New  York  is  close  at  hand  with  its  thousands  of  crime- 


84  DECENT   RESIDENCES. 

breeding  tenement  houses  and  cellars,  from  which  come  66 
per  cent,  of  the  mortality,  and  90  per  cent,  of  the  offences 
against  property  and  person.*  How  can  the  state,  or  its 
wealthy  citizens,  be  absolved  from  blame,  when  those  who  are 
deprived  of  every  opportunity  for  decency,  modesty,  and 
purity,  become  impure?  The  state  requires  that  the  child 
shall  receive  a  certain  amount  of  education  ;  but  what  avail 
is  it  to  teach  him  to  read  and  write,  if  it  neglects  the  higher 
education  of  his  moral  attributes?  As  it  is  impossible  to  un- 
derstand how  any  sincere  believer  in  the  teachings  of  Christ 
can  devote  his  life  to  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  after  having 
acquired  sufficient  for  moderate  needs  and  made  a  provision 
for  his  offspring,  it  is  equally  incomprehensible  how  a  Chris- 
tian employer  can  return  unconcernedly  to  the  luxurious  com- 
fort of  the  modern  abode  without  giving  a  thought  to  the 
contrasted  homes  of  far  too  many  of  the  men  and  women  in 
his  employ.  Both  are  moral  inconsistencies  irreconcilable  with 
the  faith  professed,  and  in  non-accord  with  its  inculcationsi 
If  the  duty  of  wealth,  government,  or  society,  in  this  par- 
ticular involved  a  monetary  loss  there  might  be  an  answerable 
objection  to  remedial  schemes,  but  the  experience  is  that  de- 
cent residences  afford  as  good  a  return  on  the  investment  as 
other  classes  of  property.  The  Improved  Industrial  Dwell- 
ings Company,  of  London,  during  an  existence  of  21  years, 
has  invested  ^4,750,000,  owns  tenements  now  occupied  by 
25,000  persons,  which  are  models  of  comfort  and  privacy, 
and  divides  5  per  cent,  among  its  holders.  The  Queen's 
Park  estate  consists  of  about  3000  houses,  built  on  the  cottage 
system,  "designed  with  such  architectural  skill,  and  varied 
both  in  form  and  color  with  such  fine  taste  as  to  give  to  the 
whole  the  appearance  of  an  aesthetic  city,  rather  than  what  is 
generally  associated  with  the  idea  of  an  artisan's  locality," 
and  is  understood  to  be  satisfactorily  remunerative.  The 
Brooklyn  tenement  houses  of  Mr.  A.  T.  White  are  stated  by 
that  gentleman  to  give  a  net  return  of  6  per  cent.,  and  even 

*  Brace,  "  The  Dangerous  Classes  of  New  York." 


TRADE   EDUCATION.  ^ 

the  Peabody  buildings,  which  are  not  managed  with  an  im- 
mediate view  to  profit,  return  as  much  as  if  their  cost  had 
been  capitalized  in  consols.  Here  then  is  a  Christian  obliga- 
tion the  fulfilment  of  which  jxiys  about  $}4  per  cent,  on  the 
investment,  in  addition  to  a  community  dividend  cf  morality, 
cleanliness,  and  self-respect. 

The  inalienable  right  of  the  child  to  the  full  development 
of  its  innate  powers  by  education  is  so  generally  acknowledged, 
and  the  result  in  this  country  has  so  counteracted  the  effect  of 
other  demoralizing  tendencies,  that  it  would  seem  a  natural 
step  to  continue  the  experiment  in  the  direction  of  manual 
and  technical  training,  extending  the  latter,  when  the  material 
was  encouraging,  even  to  its  highest  branches.  The  economi- 
cal value  to  the  community  of  such  an  education  is  now 
thoroughly  admitted,  but  when  it  is  only  attainable  by  a  few, 
and  those  not  always  the  best  qualified  for  achievement,  its 
deprivation  must  be  included  in  those  removable  unfairnesses 
for  which  many  of  the  states  are  separately  responsible.  It  is 
always  possible  that  the  very  force  designated  talent  or  genius 
will  of  itself  be  sufficient  to  break  through  the  barriers  of 
poverty  and  want  of  opportunity.  Yet  it  would  be  better  if 
society  would  assist  that  force  by  removing  impediments  and 
affording  facilities.  The  national  government  recognizes  this 
obligation  in  its  military  and  naval  policy,  and  has  found  a 
fairly  practical  way  of  carrying  it  out,  by  taking  the  best 
fitted  of  its  sons,  without  regard  to  birth  or  wealth,  and  plac- 
ing them  in  West  Point  or  Annapolis,  that  their  natural  pro- 
ficiency may  be  further  cultivated  in  its  natural  direction,  and 
while  thus  careful  to  encourage  the  destructive  sciences  which 
are  considered  necessary  to  national  preservation,  it  has  pur- 
sued an  equally  enlightened  policy  on  all  matters  pertaining 
to  national  education,  from  the  primary  school  to  the  univer- 
sity. The  central  authority  cannot  be  charged  with  any 
laxity  of  duty  in  this  respect.  Its  gifts  of  public  lands  in 
1862  for  the  purposes  of  higher  education  was  the  continua- 
tion of  a  principle  that  has  been  adhered  to  by  Congress  with 
steadfast  liberality  since  colonial  days.     Had  that  and  other 


Ob  TECHNICAL  EDUCATION. 

magnificent  donations  been  duly  husbanded  by  the  states,  the 
fund  realized  would  have  more  than  sufficed  for  both  the 
manual  and  the  advanced  instruction  of  all  who  desired  and 
were  fitted  for  it.  By  mismanagement  in  the  first  instance, 
and  subsequent  misapplication  of  the  endowment  to  other 
than  the  purposes  intended,  many  of  the  commonwealths 
have  not  fulfilled  the  design  laid  down  by  Mr.  Morrill  when 
the  land  grant  was  made;  that  is,  the  foundation  of  practical 
"institutions  accessible  to  all,  but  especially  to  the  sons  of 
toil."  (Instead  of  being  such,  they  are  generally  inaccessible 
except  to  those  already  in  good  circumstances,  and  scientific 
and  technical  instruction  is  in  the  majority  of  them  a  con- 
sideration secondary  to  literary.1 

Such  an  eminent  authority  as  Mr.  Scott  Russell  considers  a 
national  system  of  technical  education  the  chief  remedy  for 
the  degradation  of  work  and  workmen,  and  a  more  recent 
writer  earnestly  and  eloquently  contends  that  in  manual 
schools  is  to  be  found  the  solution  not  only  of  our  social,  but 
of  our  industrial  problems.*  "That  systematic  education,"  •)* 
observes  Mr.  Russell,  "would  lead  to  greater  equality  in  the 
distribution  of  wealth,  to  a  true  appreciation  of  eachman's 
worth,  and  to  a  deeper  interest  of  each  man  in  his  neighbor's 
well-doing  is  not  difficult  to  recognize,"  and  in  continuing 
the  argument  on  this  proposition  it  is  at  least  sufficiently 
demonstrated  that  society  has  at  hand  in  technical  education 
a  most  powerful  means  for  diminishing  the  extremes  of  social 
inequality. 

"  Without  technical  education  or  manual  training  the  la- 
borer of  the  future  cannot  hope  to  rise  above  the  grade  of  a 
piece  of  automatic  machinery,"  J  writes  Mr.  Ham;  and  on 
another  page§  he  says  that  "any  hope  of  social  reform  is 
wholly  irrational  that  does  not  spring  from  the  postulate  of  a 


*  Chnrles   H.   Ham,  "  Manual  Training  the  Solution  of  Social  and 
Industrial  Problems." 

f  "Systematic  Technical  Education,"  page  128  et seq. 
X  Pajie  III. 
\  Page  321. 


HAZAUDOUS    OCCUPATIONS.  87 

complete  educational  revolution."  Whatever  opinion  there 
may  be  on  this  latter  proposition,  it  is  certain  that  the  in- 
ability to  obtain  the  mental  or  manual  instruction  l)est  fitted 
to  elevate  the  seeker  to  the  extent  of  his  natural  aptitude  is  a 
condition  for  which  there  ought  to  be  a  remedy,  and  it  is 
exceedingly  likely  that  if  a  trial  was  made  on  a  large  scale 
and  during  a  sufficiently  long  period,  in  the  direction  indi- 
cated, the  experiment  would  result  in  the  discovery  of  a 
powerful  industrial  solvent.  Common  education  has  done 
marvels;  uncommon  education  might  do  still  greater  ones; 
but  whether  it  did  or  no,  a  single  Garfield  or  Roebling,  West 
or  Morse,  developed  from  the  undeveloped,  would  more  than 
repay  the  educational  expenditure  of  the  state  for  a  score  of 
years.  The  name  and  fame  of  Lincoln  will  have  a  living 
value  to  Illinois  as  long  as  that  commonwealth  endures; 
Shakespeare  has  made  of  Warwickshire  a  memory  in  all 
lands;  and  as  with  these,  the  immortal  sons  of  our  posterity 
will  by  their  example  and  influence  compensate  a  hundred 
times,  and  yet  again,  the  land  that  nourishes  their  expansive 
growth. 

There  are  certain  hazardous  occupations  undertaken  by  tlie 
few  for  the  many,  the  incidental  risks  on  which  give  rise  to  a 
vast  amount  of  preventable  social  unfairness.  These  pursuits 
may  be  spoken  of  as  voluntary;  to  a  certain  extent  they  are, 
to  a  still  greater  they  are  not.  The  growing  son  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania miner  or  of  the  Gloucester  fisherman  will  be  put  to  the 
same  work  as  hjs  father,  because  these  are  the  only  avenues 
open  to  him.  f'fhe  competition  of  labor  is  so  great  every- 
where that  parents,  in  city  and  coimtry  alike,  push  their  chil- 
dren into  the  first  opening,  be  it  store,  office  or  workshoj).' 
When  the  only  industries  are  mining  or  fishing  there  is  prac- 
tically no  choice,  and  the  adaptability  of  youth  fitting  itself 
to  circumstances  continues  in  the  direction  of  the  given  im- 
petus. So,  theoretically,  the  risks  are  voluntarily  assumed, 
and  as  there  must  be  men  to  incur  them,  it  should  be  a  i)ara- 
mount  duty  to  reduce  the  hazard,  and  when  that  has  been 
done,  and  the  apparently  inevitable  yet  occurs,  a  systematic 


88  HAZARDOUS   OCCUPATIONS. 

alleviation  of  the  suffering  consequent  thereon,  ought  to  take 
the  place  of  the  present  uncertain  and  spasmodic  efforts  for 
relief.  If,  as  one  would  suppose,  tlie  compensation  for  the 
risk  was  in  proportion  to  the  danger,  the  two  might  counter- 
balance; yet  such  is  far  from  being  the  case.  The  ordinary- 
pay  of  miners  in  Indiana  is  only  $1.49  per  diem;  in  Mary- 
land ^1.62;  Missouri  $1.58;  Ohio  lii.75,  and  Pennsylvania 
jgi.po;  or  less  than  craftsmen  in  any  ordinary  occupation 
receive,  and  even  this  is  in  many  instances  greatly  reduced 
by  various  devices  of  the  truck  system.  The  payment  of  deep 
water  sailors  is  notoriously  small,  and  the  earnings  of  coasters 
and  fishermen  can  only  be  classed  as  a  grade  above  that  of 
unskilled  labor  ashore. 

During  the  ten  years  ending  1880  the  annual  average  of 
accidental  deaths  from  all  causes,  among  the  coal  miners  of 
Great  Britain,  was  1135.  In  1881  there  was  one  miner  killed 
for  every  170,000  tons  of  coal  raised.  A  tax  of  1-16  of  a 
penny  per  ton  on  the  output  would  have  created  a  fund  avail- 
able for  the  payment  of  about  ;^44  to  the  bereaved  family, 
and  ^  of  a  penny  would  have  been  sufficient  to  provide  a 
relief  payment  for  a  term  of  years. 

In  1879  ^^^^  number  of  deaths  from  drowning  in  the  British 
mercantile  marine  was  2001,  out  of  193,000  seamen  em- 
ployed.* The  total  from  all  causes  was  nineteen  per  thousand, 
or  nearly  double  that  of  the  corresponding  rate  for  age  in 
England.  A  very  small  percentage  on  the  net  value  of  im- 
ports and  exports,  or  an  infinitesimal  tax  on  the  tonnage  car- 
ried, would  have  established  a  provision  for  dependents. 
Within  the  last  fifteen  years  over  1200  Gloucester  fishermen 
have  lost  their  lives  on  the  fishing  banksjf  leaving  an  amount 
of  suffering  and  destitution  behind  that  must  have  been 
doubly  appalling  from  the  limited  community  on  which  the 
disasters  fell.     Can  that  be  called  a  triumph  of  civilization 


*  Mulhall's  "  Dictionary  of  Statistics. " 

f  In  the  winter  of  1871,  140  were  drownerl ;  in   1873,  ^74J  ^"   ^875, 
123;   in  1876,  212;   in  1879,  249;   and  in  1882,  102. 


ACCIDENT  RELIEF  ASSOCIATIONS.  89 

which  permits  these  widowed  and  fatherless  to  struggle  along 
as  best  they  may,  year  after  year  adding  to  tlic  death-roll  and 
intensifying  the  distress,  while  commerce  goes  on  with  its 
wealth-getting  utterly  unmindful  of  them  ?  Is  there  not  some 
remedy  for  a  system  which  allows  the  owners  of  large  un- 
earned income  to  pass  their  days  in  the  unremitting  pursuit  of 
idle  pleasure,  while  the  bravest  and  hardiest  toilers,  who  leave 
their  bones  to  whiten  on  the  drifting  sands,  have  the  added 
agony  of  knowing  in  the  last  supreme  moment  that  the  wife 
and  little  ones  in  the  cottage  at  home  are  thenceforth  penni- 
less? 

If  the  life-loss  in  hazardous  pursuits  is  utterly  beyond  pre- 
vention, the  consequences  are  still  remediable.  The  ease  with 
which  state  legislation  could  make  compulsory  provision  for 
support  in  case  of  sickness  is  exemplified  by  Germany,  where 
every  j^erson  who  works  for  wages  or  salary  is  compelled  to 
insure.  Such  a  law  in  the  United  States  would  remove 
**  many  of  the  terrors  which  encompass  the  life  of  a  laboring 
man,"  and  while  it  would  be  very  desirable  that  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  premium  should  come  from  the  insured,  a  probate 
tax  would  afford  a  ready  means  of  making  up  the  deficiency 
and  of  increasing  the  insurance,  or  failing  that,  the  suggestion 
made  in  a  succeeding  page  is  worthy  of  consideration.* 

Relief  associations  have  existed  among  the  German  miners 
for  centuries.  The  employer  and  the  miner  each  contribute 
one-half.  Sick  relief,  medicine,  medical  aid  and  funeral  ex- 
penses, or  in  case  of  permanent  disability,  an  annuity,  are  paid 
out  of  these  funds.  Orphan  and  invalid  asylums,  hospitals, 
schools,  etc.,  are  also  built,  and  support  granted  to  widows 
and  other  dependents.  The  imperial  law  of  Germany,  passed 
June  15,  1883,  makes  insurance  by  all  people  who  work  for 
wages  or  salary  compulsory.  The  premium  must  not,  under 
ordinary  circumstances,  exceed  i^  per  cent,  of  the  daily 
local  wages,  but  under  the  stress  of  excessive  sickness  it  may 
be  raised  to  2  percent.     The  benefits  are:  medical  attend- 

*  See  page  91. 


90  CORrORATE   RELIEF   SOCIETIES. 

ance,  medicine,  and  one-half  of  usual  wages,  dating  from  the 
third  day  of  disability  and  continuing  for  thirteen  weeks, 
which  ia  some  cases  may  be  extended  to  three-fourths  wages 
for  one  year.  Employers  are  responsible  for  the  collection  of 
the  premiums,  and  must  themselves  add  to  it  one-third.  In 
1884  this  measure  was  followed  by  further  compulsory  legis- 
lation for  cases  of  accident,  its  special  object  being  to  take 
up  the  support  of  the  injured  workman  in  dangerous  occu- 
pations ONLY  at  the  fourteenth  week,  when  the  obligation  of 
the  first  fund  ends,  and  provide  for  continuous  support  during 
a  term  of  years,  if  necessary,  or  if  death  should  ensue,  for  the 
family.  In  the  latter  event  the  widow  receives  20  per  cent. 
of  her  husband's  annual  earnings,  and  each  child  an  addi- 
tional 15  per  cent.,  until  fifteen  years  of  age.  Parents  or 
grandparents  who  were  supported  by  the  deceased  are  also 
entitled  to  20  per  cent. 

The  railroad  system  of  Austria-Hungary  has  provided,  since 
1862,  for  pensioning  the  incapacitated,  and  for  sick  relief; 
and  the  general  insurance  of  workmen  has  been  made  obliga- 
tory in  Switzerland.  In  England,  the  principle  of  accident 
insurance  has  been  applied  by  voluntary  assessment  in  most 
of  the  mining  districts;  the  Northumberland  and  Durham 
Miners'  Permanent  Relief  Fund  having  a  membership  of  nearly 
1,000,000.  All  the  large  railroad  companies  have  also  made 
it  obligatory  on  their  employes  to  join  the  insurance  societies 
attached  to  their  respective  lines;  and  in  the  United  States, 
the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  Company  has  had  a  similar 
institution  in  operation  with  very  successful  results  since  May, 
1880;  the  directors  munificently  contributing  ^100,000  from 
the  corporate  funds  as  a  nucleus  for  the  organization. 

While  the  trade-unions  of  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain  thus  partly  supply  the  legislative  omissions  of  both 
nations,  by  taking  upon -themselves  the  duty  of  insuring  their 
members  against  sickness,  they  make  little  or  no  provision  for 
[  the  support  of  the  family  after  death.  It  is  true  that  other 
associations  occupy  this  sphere,  and  to  a  large  extent  mitigate 
the  pecuniary  distress  that  follows  the  death  of  the  head  of  a 


EMPLOYERS*   LIABILITIES.  91 

household,  yet  there  is  need  of  some  legislation  that  will  make 
the  community  at  large  partly  liable  for  the  insurance  risk  in 
hazardous  avocations,  and  enforce  insurance  on  others  as  in 
Germany.  It  might  even  be  a  question  for  consideration, 
whether  some  portion  of  the  surplus  national  revenue  could 
be  better  applied  than  to  a  system  of  universal  insurance, 
cither  by  augmenting  the  value  of  the  policy,  or  reducing  the 
annual  premium.  In  a  more  advanced  society,  this  will  cer- 
tainly be  one  of  the  functions  of  the  state,  and  it  would  be 
difficult  to  propose  a  measure  having  greater  promise  of  gen- 
eral good,  at  a  smaller  cost. 

Closely  connected  with  the  subject  of  accidents  and  insur- 
ance, is  that  of  the  employer's  liability  to  his  work-people  for 
death  or  injuries  resulting  from  the  negligence  of  a  co-employ6. 
After  a  conflict  extending  over  many  years,  the  English  work- 
man in  1880  secured  the  passage  of  the  well-known  **  Em- 
ployer's Liability  Act,"  the  gist  of  which  is  that  the  employer 
is  made  legally  responsible  for  personal  injuries  caused  to  his 
men  by  the  neglect  of  sub-contractors*  agents  or  fellow-work- 
men ;  the  pecuniary  liability  being  limited  to  a  total  not  ex- 
ceeding the  average  wages  of  the  injured  for  three  years. 
iThe  inception  of  this  obligation  is  found  in  the  Mosaic  law,  \ 
("Wlien  thou  buildest  a  new  house,  then  thou  shalt  make  a  I 
■  battlement  for  thy  roof,  that  thou  bring  not  blood  upon  thine    1 
( house,  if  any  man  fall  from  thence."  *  ^ 

lilxcepting  in  some  eight  or  ten  of  the  states  and  territo- 
ries,f  no  legislation  on  this  important  matter  has  yet  found  a 
place  on  our  codes,  and  in  the  ones  referred  to  it  is  only  ap- 
plicable to  railroad  companies,  so  that  the  large  number  of 
workmen  who  are  maimed  every  year  from  the  carelessness  of 
fellow-employes,  without  any  contributory  negligence  of  their 
own,  and  the  families  of  those  who  are  killed  from  the  same 
cause,  have  no  redress  whatever.     A  faultily  built  scaflbld  may 


*  Deuteronomy. 22  :  8. 

t  Among  these  si.aies  and  territories  are,  Georgia,  Iowa,  Kansas,  Missis* 
sipi  i,  Kliude  Inland,  Montana,  and  Wyoming. 


f 
92  GOVERNMENTAL   REMEDIES. 

fall  and  injure  for  life  half  a  dozen  bricklayers  working  on 
it,  yet  no  suit  for  damage  can  be  maintained,  however  negli- 
gent the  carpenter  who  erected  it,  because  he  and  the  brick- 
layers were  fellow-workmen.  An  incompetent  engineer  may 
kill  or  maim  several  factory  operatives,  but  unless  notoriously 
unqualified  there  is  no  compensation,  because  both  parties 
were  paid  by  the  same  master.*  The  anomaly  and  one-sided- 
ness  of  this  rule  of  common  law  may  be  seen  from  the  fact 
that  if  a  third  person  is  injured,  no  doubt  exists  as  to  liability. 
The  legislation  of  the  United  States  ought  not  to  lag  behind 
that  of  other  nations  in  affording  all  the  protection  that  can 
be  given  to  the  bread-winners.  It  should  rather  set  the  ex- 
ample than  follow ;  and  above  all  things  take  care  that  the 
scale  of  justice  does  not,  as  in  this  case,  incline  toward  capital 
and  against  labor. 

A  national  negligence  that  principally  affects  the  working 
classes  must  also  be  designated  a  national  inequality.  Of  this 
nature  is  the  absence  of  any  general  provision  for  small  sav- 
ings, and  the  cultivation  thereby  of  provident  habits^  This 
country  is  not  altogether  free  from  that  superciliousness  which 
is  generally  ascribed  to  those  foreigners  who  write  about  its 
affairs,  and  notwithstanding  its  advanced  governmental  type, 
something  can  yet  be  learned  from  Great  Britain  and  Germany, 
especially  as  to  the  Postal  Savings  Bank  system  of  the  one, 
and  the  insurance  laws  of  the  other.  It  is  not  hard  for  a  man 
to  save  who  can  make  a  first  deposit  of  fifty  or  one  hundred 
dollars.  There  are  plenty  of  institutions  willing  to  take 
charge  of  his  money.  But  when  economy  can  only  get  to- 
gether as  many  cents,  it  becomes  difficult  to  find  a  proper 
keeper  for  them.  One  of  the  formulated  demands  of  the 
labor  unions  relates  to  this  want,  and  surely  it  would  not  be 
a  very  onerous  duty  for  Congress  to  pattern  a  law  after  the 
English  original  that  would  meet  the  requirement.  The  na- 
tion would  welcome  such  a  desirable  bill  to  its  statute  book. 

*  These  are  statements  of  law  made  in  a  broad  sense. — Ed. 


GOVERNMKNTAL   REMEDIES.  98 

The  success  of  the  English  postal-thrift  system*  has  resulted 
in  its  adoption  by  most  of  the  colonies,  including  the  West 
Indies,  and  by  Austria,  Belgium,  Finland,  Holland,  Hungary, 
Italy,  Sweden,  and  Japan  ;  by  the  civilized  world  in  fact, 
excepting  the  United  States.  A  progressive  nation  in  the 
Orient  enables  its  poor  to  do  what  this  government  refuses, 
and  the  negroes  in  the  West  Indies  are  offered  an  incentive 
to  prudence  that  our  legislators  will  not  allow.  It  is  strange 
that  self-help  is  not  considered  as  worthy  of  encouragement 
here  as  elsewhere,  but  that  such  is  the  case  is  apparent  from 
the  listlessness  with  which  the  subject  is  regarded,  and  until 
one  or  other  of  the  political  parties  adopts  the  proposal 
as  a  party  measure  it  is  evidently  useless  to  expect  a  more 
active  interest. 

^  Although  the  possession  of  earned  and  a  certain  proportion 
of  inherited  wealth  is  not  in  itself  an  unfairness,  if  the  owner 
uses  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  increase  or  intensify  the  social  dis- 
advantages of  others,  it  may  easily  become  so.  Under  this 
rule  is  the  withholding  of  large  tracts  of  land  from  settle- 
ment, any  monopoly  by  which  the  necessaries  of  life  are  made 
dearer,  or  their  distribution  prohibited  except  on  payment  of 
excessive  toll,  and  even  in  some  cases  the  taking -advantage 
of  a  redundance  of  labor  to  reduce  wages  below  the  workers* 
just  earningsj:  The  hedger  mentioned  in  the  last  chapter, 
who  was  paid  only  2S.  a  week  for  his  labor,  was  robbed  of 
five-sixths  of  his  toil,  and  if  a  capitalist  or  an  association  of 
capitalists  make  an  exorbitant  profit  out  of  the  laborer's 
necessity  for  work ;  if  they  avail  themselves  of  the  fact  that 


*  In  England  the  postal  savings  bank  enables  the  people  to  save  as 
small  a  sum  as  one  |>enny  at  a  time.  Blanks  are  furnished  free  of  charge 
at  any  post-office,  with  spaces  for  twelve  stnmps,  and  this,  when  filled,  is 
taken  as  a  shilling  deposit,  interest  being  allowed  at  the  rate  of  2^  per 
cent,  on  all  sums  of  £\  and  its  multiples.  Not  more  than  £y)  must  be 
deposited  in  any  one  year,  nor  more  than  ;^I50  in  all,  and  when  that  sum 
with  compound  interest  reaches  j^200,  interest  ceases.  There  are  now 
about  8000  postal  savings  offices  open  in  the  United  Kingdom,  and  their 
utility  may  be  gauged  f^iom  the  fact  that  40  per  cent,  of  all  depositors 
commence  with  one  shilling. 

f  "  Rob  not  the  poor,  because  he  is  poor." — Proverbs  22 :  22. 


^jnis  crying  stomach, Ainshod  feet,  and  helpless  family  compel 


GOVERNMENTAL   REMEDIES. 


him  to  sell  his  labor  at  once,  for  anything  that  is  offered,  it 
constitutes  one  of  the  worst  cases  of  moral  unfairness  that  can 
be  adducedjj 

The  subject  of  land  monopoly  is  already  within  the  realm 
of  practical  politics,  and  the  regulation  of  transportation 
charges  has  passed  the  experimental  stage,  but  the  grievance 
of  under-payment,  by  concerted  or  even  individual^tion,  is 
one  that  it  is  impossible  to  reach  by  enactment.  \Such  an 
injustice  is  rarely  attempted  with  skilled  labor,  because  its 
place  cannot  readily  be  filled ;  but,  unfortunately,  the  plenti- 
fulness  of  unskilled  labor  is  to  the  capitalist  as  water  to  those 
who  live  on  the  banks  of  a  river,  and,  pitiless  as  the  fiat  may 
seem,  there  is  no  natural  obligation  either  on  the  part  of  the 
state  or  the  wealthy  individuaLto  hire  labor  at  all,  much  more 
at  a  price  fixed  by  its  ownen^^^iere  is  a  remedy  for  this  as 
for  many  other  evils,  though  it  is  one  not  subject  to  the  be- 
hest of  statutes  or  strikers,  and  can  only  be  made  effective  by 
a  slow  and  painful  process,  analogous  to  the  conversion  of  a 
bar  of  iron  into  its  higher  products.  Slit-iron  for  nails  is  lo  per 
cent,  more  valuable  than  bar-iron,  and  horse-shoes  are  worth 
one  and  alialf  times  more  than  the  un wrought  commodity. 
Labor  must  convert  its  rough  possibilities  into  higher 
effectives,  and  then  it  will  no  longer  be  a  stream  from  which 
aTr~can-draw  at  will,  but  a  well-guarded  reservoir  which  those 
who  use  must  pay  for  in  fair  value.  Legislation  cannot  com- 
pel men  to  higher  effort,  but  it  can  surround  them  with 
inducements  to  make  the  attempt.  Legislation  cannot  com- 
pel employers  to  pay  a  fixed  wage,  be  the  necessity  of  the 
worker  ever  so  great,  but  the  laborer  can  by  combination 
demand  that  his  living  cost  be  added  to  the  selling  price  of 
the  product.  Human  laws  can  rarely  compel  men  to  be  just, 
but  he  who  would  foll-ow  the  great  commandment  will  en- 
deavor to  carry  out  the  obligation  of  his  brotherhood,  and 
though  there  are  five  seekers  for  each  day's  work  to  be  done, 
will  yet  remember  the  Master's  saying  that  ^Uhe_ laborer  is 
worthy  of  his  hire.'/ 


EXAMPLE   OF   niRMIXGIIAM.  95 

In  the  foregoing  suggestions  of  social-industrial  inequalities 
for  which  there  are  remedies,  it  has  been  intended  to  imply 
that  the  state  must  be  the  chief  agent  for  their  removal. 
What  may  be  done  by  delegated  municipal  powers  is  shown 
by  Mr.  John  Macdonald,  in  an  article  tliat  appeared  on  Bir- 
mingliam,*  "a  city  wherein  the  s[)irit  of  the  new  times  is  most 
widely,  variously,  and  energetically  assuming  visible  form 
and  shape." 

.This  English  town  early  took  the  ground  that  it  was  a  civic 
duty  to  remove  unfair  obstacles  against  individual  develop^ 
ment,  to  inaugurate  social  activity  and  popular  culture,  and 
to  elevate  the  general  condition  of  its  population  of  workers, 
not  merely  by  adding  to  their  "saleable  knowledge,"  but  by 
reducing  their  miseries,  studying  their  needs,  and  ameliora- 
ting their  lives  by  every  method  known  to  nineteenth  century 
humanism.  As  Mr.  Macdonald  remarks,  **no  subject  bearing 
upon  the  physical  and  spiritual  welfare  of  society  should  be 
considered  beyond  the  scope  of  local  or  national  politics. 
.  .  .  Whatever  men  in  combination  can  do  for  the  free 
growth  of  each  individual,  for  the  refinement,  the  elevation, 
the  beautifying  of  human  life,  by  art,  by  literature,  by  science, 
by  'recreation,*  all  that  is  'Politics,'  and  the  art  of  politics, 
the  art  of  life  in  society,  is  the  highest  and  greatest  of  all 
arts."  The  first  magnificent  experiment  of  this  municipality 
was  the  purchase  of  the  gas  and  water  works  for  $2,000,000, 
with  the  immediate  result  that  the  price  of  water  was  reduced 
30  i)er  cent.,  and  that  of  gas  very  largely,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  additional  profit  of  health  and  comfort  gained  by  this 
general  partnership  in  daily  necessaries.  Thousands  of  fever- 
haunted  habitations  were  then  swept  away,  17,500,000  worth 
of  land  acquired  in  the  heart  of  the  town,  and  a  line  of 
streets  and  noble  public  buildings  erected  thereon  which 
redeemed  Birmingham  from  its  ugliness,  and  made  it  archi- 
tecturally the   finest   city  in    the  Midlands.     One   of  these 


*  "  Birmingham,  a  Study  from  the  Life." — Nineteenth  Century^  Au- 
gust, 1 886.     ci    ^y^  ta/vdUJ^(K   \i^^d»M.Lv  \   "^"lo. 


96  EXA.MPLE   OF   BIRMINGHAM. 

buildings  is  a  municipal  School  of  Art,  giving  instruction  to 
2000  pupils  and  showing  ''that  the  city  cares  as  much  for  the 
culture  of  her  people  as  for  the  sweeping  of  her  streets." 
Near  it,  in  a  continuous  series,  stand  the  Institute,  where 
practical  instruction  on  every  useful  subject  from  music  to 
metallurgy  can  be  had  for  a  penny  a  lesson  ;  the  Free  Library 
and  Museum,  and  that  abiding  monument  of  a  noble  life,  the 
Mason  College.  The  stimulus  to  culture  resulting  from  these 
opportunities  has  been  unprecedented,  and  instead  of  being 
confined  to  any  particular  class,  or  to  a  ** small  minority  of 
exceptionally  intelligent  men,"  has  included  more  or  less  the 
whole  community,  directed  and  encouraged  primarily  by  the 
municipality,  but  seconded  by  the  active  aid  of  its  most 
prominent  and  liberal  citizens. 

As  an  example  of  the  general  thoughtfulness  that  exists  be- 
tween the  corporate  officials  and  the  humbler  classes,  when 
the  question  of  cheap  food  for  poor  children  was  mooted,  the 
School  Board  at  once  co-operated  with  Mr.  France,  the 
founder  of  the  half-penny  dinner  society,  and  arranged  for 
the  daily  delivery  of  a  wholesome  meal  at  the  elementary 
schools,  and  it  is  now  as  regular  an  institution  as  the  **  cabi- 
net on  wheels  which  accompanies  the  science  headmaster  on 
his  rounds."  The  public  good  has  always  been  the  first  con- 
sideration of  the  authorities,  and  the  social  characteristics 
engendered  by  such  an  enlightened  municipal  policy  are 
shown  in  a  homogeneity  of  sentiment,  in  the  absence  of  caste, 
in  the  free  mingling  of  employer  and  employed,  and  in  the 
willing  subversion  of  individual  interests  for  the  benefit  of  all 
that  has  made  life  for  a  very  large  number  better  worth  the 
living. 

"I  have  never  known  a  community  which,  as  a  whole, 
seemed  to  me  to  be  so  thoroughly  imbued  with  honest  public 
si)irit,  and  the  true  feeling  of  democracy,"  writes  Mr.  Wilson 
King,  the  United  States  consul  at  Birmingham,  in  the  con- 
sular reports  of  1884.  ''Very  many  of  the  wealthiest  and 
best  educated  and  highest  placed  men  here  join  with  those  of 
the  poorer  and  humbler  classes  in  working  and  advising  for 


RESULTS  AT   BIRMINGHAM.  97 

the  general  good.  Private  charity  has  taken  many  beautiful 
shapes,  and  the  dingy  town  has  grown  far  brighter  even  dur- 
ing the  few  years  I  liave  lived  here.  Hospitals  of  every  kind 
have  been  endowed,  education  in  every  branch  from  the  low- 
est to  the  highest,  in  art,  science,  and  letters,  is  possible  to 
every  one  who  cares  to  have  it.  Parks  have  been  oi)ened,  as 
well  as  a  noble  series  of  free  bathing-houses  and  free  libraries. 
Cheap  concerts  are  given  weekly,  at  least,  in  the  town  hall, 
and  numerous  courses  of  free  lectures  and  other  entertain- 
ments take  place  in  the  various  board  schools." 
fAll  this  is  the  very  opposite  of  laisser-faire.  It  breathes 
into  the  indifference  of  town  life  the  spirit  of  brolherhood, 
and  makes  every  man  a  true  member  of  society,  society  caring 
for  the  individual,  and  the  individual  reciprocating  by  an 
active  interest  and  pride  in  his  civic  surroundings.*/  If  a 
place  of  400,000  inhabitants  can  do  this,  why  not  the  state, 
and  with  such  an  example,  can  there  be  any  excuse  for  the 
stupid  corruption  of  our  own  cities?  Or  looking  at  the  mat- 
ter through  a  reversed  glass,  if  so  many  people  can  order 
their  affairs  with  good  will  and  enlightened  sympathy  for 
each  other,  people  who  represent  every  diversity  of  birth, 
position,  and  active  pursuits,  every  variety  of  political  and 
religious  opinions,  every  grade  of  poverty  and  wealth,  why 
cannot  a  small  manufacturing  establishment,  with  a  common 
interest,  work  in  equal  harmony  for  a  common  good?  The 
answer  must  be  that  /'/  can;  and  the  promise  is  that  /"/  a////, 
when,  as  there,  individual  selfishness  is  supplanted  by  those 
higher  motives  which  are  as  reconcilable  with  the  prosperity 
of  the  wealth-seeker  as  the  well-being  of  the  wage-earner, 
and  which  are  equally  consistent  with  a  fair  return  to  the 
capitalist  for  his  capital,  a  fair  reward  to  the  laborer  for  his 
labor,  and  the  greatest  good  of  one  and  all. 

There  can  be  no  difficulty  in  separating  the  duty  of  the 


*  Two  years  ago,  in  the  whole  of  Birmingham  there  were  only  twelve 
cases  known  of  one  family  living  in  a  single  room,  while  in  Glasgow  the 
proportion  was  48  per  cent,  of  ihe  entire  number  of  families. 
7 


\fb  DUTY    OF   THE   STATE. 

individual  from  that  of  the  state  in  the  application  of  all  rea- 
sonable social  correctives.  The  state,  for  instance,  is  the 
expressed  will  of  the  people,  and  through  it  and  the  powers 
delegated  to  its*  lesser  division,  society  has  unanimously  de- 
clared that  those  who  fall  injured  by  the  way,  the  sick, 
wounded,  and  helpless  in  life's  battle,  must  be  provided  for. 
To  effect  that  purpose,  hospitals,  poor-houses,  and  orphan 
asylums  are  founded  and  supported  by  the  coinmunity.  Cold 
and  unpitying  as  this  help  usually  is,  it  crudely  answers  its 
object,  but  it  does  not  prevent  the  warmer,  kindlier  hand  of 
charity  from  doing  its  heaven-blessed  task.  The  one  is  the 
field-hospital  of  an  army  in  action ;  the  other  the  single  bed 
of  suffering,  with  pity  and  womanhood  as  ministering  angels. 
So  it  is  with  any  remedies  that  may  be  proposed  to  lessen  the 
unevenness  of  social  life.  In  matters  that  concern  the  vast 
aggregate  of  the  modern  commonwealth,  only  the  many  can 
act  through  the  law.  But  those  to  whom  wealth  and  indus- 
trial authority  have  been  given  can  supplement  its  action  by 
the  more  direct  and  noticeable  examples  of  the  individual, 
and  thus  in  their  respective  spheres  the  state,  the  city,  and 
the  individual  can  help  the  general  need. 

Nor  do  the  suggestions  so  far  made  involve  any  radical 
changes.  They  are  only  extensions  of  principles  already 
incorporated  in  our  statute  books,  *'an  endeavor,"  as  Prince 
Bismarck  told  the  German  Parliament  in  his  memorable 
speech  on  the  introduction  of  his  "Workman's  Insurance 
Bill,"  "to  reach  a  state  of  things  in  which  no  man  can  say, 
*I  bear  the  burden  of  society,  but  no  one  cares  for  me.'  " 

The  duty  of  educating  and  providing  for  the  moral  well- 
being  of  both  child  and  adult  is  maintained  by  the  laws  of 
every  civilized  nation.  The  duty  of  relieving  those  who  are 
injured  in  the  service  of  the  state  is  especially  affirmed  by  our 
pension  lists.  To  widen  the  acknowledgment  by  its  appli- 
cation to  those  who  take  special  industrial  hazardsjs  a  single 
progressive  step,  i  The  supposed  inlierent  rights  of  property 
are  subject  to  constant  legal  encroachment.  The  people  who 
of  all  others  are  most   conservative  of  its  privileges  have. 


/ 

DUTY   OF  THE  STATE.  99 

within  the  last  ten  years,  declared  that  the  owner  in  Ireland 
must  take  only  such  rent  as  the  tenant  can  afford  to  i)ay. 
Our  fiscal  laws  seize  property  remorselessly  if  it  attempts  any 
revenue  evasions,  and  the  leaders  of  economic  thought  are 
almost  unanimous  in  their  declaration  that  a  limitation  of 
inlieritance  is  one  of  the  reserved  powers  of  the  state.  All 
these  propositions  are  looming  on  the  morrow  of  civilized 
life  as  the  tangible  features  of  the  new  society.  We  view 
them  to-day  as  shadows;  but  if,  as  there  is  little  doubt, 
society  is  yet  in  its  youth,  the  manhood  of  government  will 
find  them  incorporated  as  realities  and,  like  Magna  Charta 
and  the  Bill  of  Rights,  a  fundamental  part  of  institutions. 

/The  fact  that  a  careful  examination  of  the  social  machine 
shows  such  few  instances  of  unequal  pressure  in  its  working 
details,  demonstrates  that  the  world  is  on  the  right  line  of  ad- 
vancementJ  As  Lord  Macaulay  says,  in  a  striking  passage  in 
the  "HisTCry  of  England  ;  "  ♦*  the  more  carefully  we  examine 
the  history  of  the  past,  the  more  reason  shall  we  find  to  dis- 
sent from  those  who  imagine  that  our  age  has  been  fruitful  of 
new  social  evils.  The  truth  is  that  the  evils  are,  with  scarcely 
an  exception,  old.  That  which  is  new  is  the  intelligence 
which  discerns  and  the  humanity  which  remedies  them." 
Yet  there  will  always  be  pessimists  to  think  otherwise ;  men 
who  are  continually  crying  "  woe,"  "  woe,"  who  see  in  every 
innovation  the  destruction  of  the  social  fabric,  who  look  upon 
the  ancient  times  of  ignorance  and  inhumanity  as  golden  days, 
and  view  every  attempt  to  remove  present  wrongs  as  ineffec- 
tual, and  wasted  endeavor. 

Unfairnesses  in  plenty  there  still  are,  but  men  are  not  ground 
down  by  oppression.  We  live  in  no  era  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution. No  classes,  in  this  country  or  in  England,  rise  above 
the  law.  There  are  no  rights  of  seigniorage.  The  humblest 
person  in  the  land  is  as  secure  in  his  life,  liberty,  and  prop- 
erty as  the  highest.  There  is  no  discriminating  taxation. 
The  state  is  yearly  extending  the  scope  of  its  obligations. 
The  press  has  a  million  eyes  to  notice,  and  a  million  tongues 
to  denounce,  any  shadow  of  oppression.     Public  opinion   is 


100  DUTY  OF  THE  STATE. 

irresistibly  on  the  side  of  justice.  Sympathy  for  labor,  pov- 
erty, and  misfortune  hovers  everywhere  and  only  wants  direc- 
tion to  crystallize  into  a  mighty  effort.  The  century  is  im- 
pregnated with  the  divine  virtues  of  love  and  charity;  the 
vital  principles  of  Christianity  have  at  length  leavened  the 
lump,  and  to  the  growth  of  these  principles,  actively  in  the 
individual,  and  administratively  in  the  state,  we  may  look  with 
confidence  for  a  continual  amelioration  of  unfair  social  con- 
ditions, risks,  and  inequalities,  and  for  a  closer  bond  of  unity 
*'  in  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  hath  made  us  free."  *'  For 
all  the  law  is  fulfilled  in  one  word,  even  in  this ;  Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  j 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE    ETHICS   OF   OWNERSHIP. 


"  He  that  despiseth  the  gain  of  oppressions  .  .  .  bread  shall  be  given 
him,  his  waters  shall  be  sure." — Isaiah  33  :   15,  16. 

"  Heahh,  beauty,  vigor,  riches,  and  all  the  other  things  called  goods, 
o|>erate  equally  as  evils  to  the  vicious  and  unjust  as  they  do  as  benehts  to 
the  just." — Plato. 

There  is  no  portion  of  man*s  duty  more  clearly  defined  in 
the  Bible  than  that  which  pertains  to/the  ethics  of  ownership, 
and  the  bearing  of  the  rich  towards  the  poot,  in  every  t^w—i 
cumstance  and  relation  of  their  daily  intercourse.  The  books 
of  both  the  Old  and  New  Testament  are  full  of  passages  on 
this  subject,  but  their  spirit  may  perhaps  be  best  summed  up 
in  those  two*  containing  the  advice  of  David,  **  If  riches  in- 
crease, set  not  your  heart  upon  theniy'  and  Paul's  instruction 
to  Timothy:  **  Charge  them  that  are  rich  in  this  world,  that 
they  be  not  highminded,  nor  trust  in  uncertain  riches,  but  in 
the  living  God,  who  giveth  us  richly  all  things  to  enjoy;  that 
they  do  good,  that  they  be  rich  in  good  works,  ready  to  dis- 
tribute, willing  to  communicate  ;  laying  up  in  store  for  them- 
selves a  good  foundation  against  the  time  to  come,  that  they 
may  lay  hold  on  eternal  life." 

Jrhese  injunctions  are  in  accord  with  the  constant  teachings 
of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  who  everywhere  denounce  the 
accumulation  of  wealth  for  its  own  sake,  enjoin  the  obligation 
of  sharing  it  with  the  poor,  and  inculcate  by  parable  and 
warning  the  folly  of  depending  upon  riches  for  favor  in  God's 
judgment.     Worldly  possessions  are  always  spoken  of  by  them 

♦  Psalms  62  :  10.     i  Timothy  6  :  17-19. 

(101) 


102  TlffF  .piK&F  -A^'D   WEALTH. 

as  in  the  nature  of  a  stewardshipJan  additional  responsibility, 
for  the  good  or  evil  use  of  wWch  the  owner  will  be  held  to 
strict  account,  and  the  laying  up  of  great  treasures,  the  add- 
ing of  house  to  house,  and  barn  to  barn,  that  the  possessor 
may  enjoy  himself,  without  regard  to  others,  is  invariably  re- 
ferred to  as  a  sin.  Even  the  selling  of  everything  for  the 
benefit  of  the  needy  is  commended,  as  if  to  show  how  little 
worth  is  any  temporary  ownership,  compared  with  the  eternal 
gifts  to  which  we  are  heirs  through  Christ;  "  for  what  shall 
it  profit  a  man,  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose  his 
own  soul?  " 

"The  early"  communism  *' of  the  Apostles,"  Mr.  Brace 
says,*  **  is  an  evidence  how  deeply  these  instructions  pene- 
trated ;  but  nothing  in  the  words  of  Christ  or  his  disciples 
show  that  they  set  forth  this  as  a  model  for  the  future.  Their 
great  principles  were,  not  to  hunger  for  riches,  to  be  content 
with  moderate  means,  and  if  wealth  came,  to  hold  it  rigidly 
as  a  trust  for  the  good  of  humanity."  Those  who  were 
blessed  with  increase  were  to  recognize  the  obligation  of  their 
prosperity,  and  employ  it  to  the  advantage  of  the  less  fortu- 
nate, just  as  they  were  expected  to  use  any  other  gift  or  nat- 
ural attainment  for  the  general  good.  To  fulfil  the  law  of 
Christ  was  to  bear  one  another's  burdens  (for  as  expressed 
by  Paul  in  a  sentence  that  contains  a  profound  exposition  of 
sociology,  *' whether  one  member  suffer  all  the  members 
suffer  with  it"),  and  it  is  the  spirit  of  the  go?pel  that  in  no 
better  way  could  those  burdens  be  borne  than  by  sharing, 
with  the  needy  and  unfortunate,  his  dispensations  of  abun- 
dance. 

The  ethics  of  Christianity  have  always  found  a  swifter 
acceptance  among  the  poor  than  among  the  rich.  Reversing 
the  process  of  political  liberty,  which  penetrated  gradually 
from  the  upper  to  the  lower  strata,  its  influence  commenced 
at  the  base  and  worked  upward.  Those  born  to  position  and 
fortune  have  therefore  been  much  slower  in  acknowledging 

*  "Gesta  Christi,"  page  96. 


MISSION  OF  WEALTH. 


^ 


its  sway  than  any  other  portion  of  the  community,  though  it 
is  daily  becoming  apparent  tliat  the  principles  of  the  gospel 
in  regard  to  possessions  have  recently  received  a  wider  and 
readier  recognition  than  at  any  previous  time.  \Men  are  be- 
ginning to  understand  that  they  are  kin,  that  humanity  knows 
neither  creed,  color,  nor  coat,  tiiat  it  is  more  blessed  to  give 
than  to  receive ;  and  it  is  to  a  further  and  fuller  ap[)rehension 
of  these  truths  that  the  education  of  those  who  are  intrusted 
with  ownership  must  be  directed.^  One  of  the  offices  of 
Christianity  is  to  teach  wealth  its  purpose,  and  as  by  it  labor 
has  been  raised  from  unspeakable  depths,  and  ennobled,  so  in 
the  coming  time  the  owners  of  the  industrial  harvest  will  be 
led  to  acknowledge  with  greater  readiness  than  now  that  they 
are  only  custodians  of  whom  **much  will  be  required." 

pTliere  is  a  higher  school  for  the  wealthy  than  the  university, 
and  more  valuable  lessons  can  be  acquired  from  the  study  of 
the  conglomerate  life  of  a  city  than  from  shelves  full  of  text- 
books. If  the  poor  and  uneducated  are  to  derive  benefit  from 
written  knowledge,  wealth  must  round  its  instruction  by  con- 
tact with  the  worker,  and  yet  more  than  this  by  learning  the 
fulness  of  its  missionj  A  cold  compliance  with  the  letter  of 
the  contract  made  with  labor  is  not  the  acquittance  that 
Christianity  demands.  The  payment  of  wages  on  Saturday 
does  not  absolve  the  payer  from  his  week's  obligation.  Above 
and  beyond  is  a  great  stewardship  of  which  none  can  divest 
themselves  if  they  would  ;  for  opulence  in  whatever  form 
carries  with  it,  as  our  Lord  in  effect  declares,  a  greater 
responsibility  than  any  other  trust  given  to  man. 

(Wealth  is  not  self-creative.  To  acquire  it  some  one  h:is 
toiled,  so  that  it  is  concentrated  labor;  to  retain  it  some  one 
has  exercised  self-denial,  for  it  is  the  accumulation  of  savings. 
Every  dollar  represents,  in  the  first  instance,  hours  of  hard 
work,  sweat  on  the  brow,  tired  muscles,  a  portion  of  some 
one's  life  given  to  its  production,  in  the  shop,  in  the  mine, 
on  the  sea,  wherever  men  barter  and  exchange  what  they  have 
to  offer,  for  their  daily  needs.  It  has  to  be  won  in  the  begin- 
ning  by  somebody  from   nature's  strongholds.     The  crude 


104  WEALTH   BEGUN    IN    LABOR. 

material  must  be  dug  from  the  ground,  or  felled  in  the 
forest,  or  dragged  from  the  sea.  Then  it  has  to  be  wrought 
into  a  desirable  form  for  use,  and  every  stage  of  the  trans- 
mutation is  a  process  of  bodily  exertion  and  skill.  The 
present  owner  may  have  come  by  his  possessions  easily,  but 
the  first  cost  is  always  in  the  aggregate  the  same,*  so  that 
every  unit  on  the  assessment-roll  of  every  state  in  the  Union 
(excepting  the  unearned  increment  on  land)  is  in  truth  the 
accumulated  result  of  so  many  days'  labor  performed  by 
laborers  all  over  the  world,  ^  under  tropic  suns  and  arctic 
.snows,  on  river,  plain,  mountain,  lake  and  ocean,  Here  or 
elsewhere,  (^he  man  who  possesses  one  hundred  dollars  con- 
sequently retains  the  gross  results  of  some  one's  labor  for 
about  one  hundred  days,  and  has  at  his  disposition  so  much 
stored  energy,  to  be  used  at  his  will  either  as  a  blessing  or  a 
curse  both  to  himself  and  to  others. 

I  Tliere  is  no  exaggeration  in  the  popular  estimate  of  the 
tremendous  power  attached  to  large  ownership,  for  as  the 
world  at  present  exists,  wealth  is  the  most  irresistible  force 
that  the  mass  of  mankind  acknowledge.  It  moves  senates  to 
enact  laws  favorable  for  further  acquisition,  and  controls  the 
voice  of  the  people;  without  it  the  engines  of  war  are  but 
lifeless  monsters,  and  the  brute  momentum  of  armies  and 
navies  useless.  Wealth  wills,  and  the  spoils  of  the  earth  are 
brought  to  its  door;  wealth  desires,  and  the  tongue  of  the 
orator,  the  pen  of  the  author,  the  service  of  genius  are  at  its 
bidding  It  can  undertake  *' enterprises  of  great  pith  and 
moment,"  or  let  them  languish;  it  can  start  into  activity  the 
huge  workshop,  or  draw  the  fires  that  furnish  bread  for  a 
thousand  men  ;  it  can  distil  happiness  and  comfort,  or  embit- 
ter the  lot  of  labor  as  with  gall  and  wormwood;  and  it  does 
these  things  so  constantly,  and  has  done  them  for  so  long, 
that  they  are  conceded  to  be  as  much  the  natural  attributes 
and  inherencies  of  possessions  as  value  to  the  gold  which 
represents  them.t 

*  Even  gold  and  silver  mining  tire  in  tTieir  total  unprofitable.  It  is 
estimated  that  every  dollar's  worth  of  precious  metals  taken  out  of  the 
ground  since  1850  has  cost  ^1.20. 


WEALTH   AND    SELFISHNESS. 


105 


As  certain  physical  processes  are  best  studied  in  vacuo^  sa 
the  most  striking  exemplifications  of  the  power  of  money  are 
to  be  found  in  the  effects  resulting  from  its  need.     For  lack 
of  a  small  portion  of  the  command  it  confers,  to-day,  since 
the  rise  of  sun,  some  poor  creature  has  sought  the  waters  of 
eartlily  oblivion,  others  have  steeped  their  souls  in  deadly 
crime,  and  hundreds  tarnished  tlie  brightness  of  their  honor. 
Since  the  first  gleam  of  this  morning's  light,  for  want  of  a 
trifling  part  of  that  which  others   have  in  superabundance, 
children  have  been  dying  in  squalid  hunger,  women  wring- 
ing their  hearts  in  unutterable  anguish,  and  men  execrating 
themselves   and   their  Maker.  PMurder,  suicide,  starvation, 
crime  of  every  dye,  barter  ot   purity,  debasement   of  con- 
science, tears,  recklessness  of  evil,  silent  despair,  everything  ^ 
that  can  rack  the  soul  and   body,   have  somewhere,  since"*^  ^jj 
dawn,  been  the  portion  of  creatures  like  ourselves,  children     <| 
of  our  God,  brothers  of  our  Christ,  heirs  of  salvation  and     /  I 
eternity,  because  they  had  not  the  merest  trifle  of  that  storage 
•which  they  could  see  in  a  thousand  tempting  shapes  on  every 
side,  but  dare  not  touch  except  as  criminals. 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  Saviour,  knowing 
all,  should  have  so  often  spoken  words  of  solemn  warning 
against  the  misuse  of  the  strongest  and  most  wide-reaching 
power  that  authority  over  material  things  has  conferred  on 
mankind.  From  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his  ministry 
there  runs  through  his  teachings  the  same  grave  tone  of 
thought,  advice,  commendation  and  reproof  in  reference  to 
the  ppssession  of  riches,  as  if  he  had  an  ever  present  con- 
sciousness that  in  this  matter,  more  than  in  any  other,  men 
but  faintly  saw  the  light,  and  so  at  all  times  and  occasions  it  is 
presented  to  them,  and  apparently  in  and  out  of  season  they 
are  bid  to  beware  of  the  special  temptations  of  wealth  and 
the  incrustation  of  selfishness. 

Apart  from  the  divine  character  of  Christ's  teachings  on 
this  subject,  they  form  at  once  the  first,  the  final,  the  most 
perfect  and  unsurpassable  moral  code  on  the  ethics  of  owner- 
ship  that   can   be   found   in  all   literature.     The  collective 


106  ETHICS   OF   OWNERSHIP. 

morality  of  the  Grecian  classics,  wise  in  many  things,  is 
almost  silent  here.  Theocritus  does  indeed  say  that  wealth 
should  be  partly  employed  in  benefiting  one's  kinsmen  and 
others,  but  it  is  more  in  the  spirit  of  good  fellowship  than 
from  any  moral  convictions.  Sophocles  likevvise  commends 
the  ''glorious  task  of  doing  good,"  but  with  these  exceptions 
and  that  of  Aristotle,  who  in  his  practical  advice  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  a  democracy  lays  down  the  rule  that  it  is  "worthy 
of  a  sensible  and  generous  nobility  to  divide  the  poor  among 
them,  and  to  induce  them  to  work  by  supplying  what  is  neces- 
sary," or  failing  this  to  permit  the  poor  **to  partake  in  com- 
mon of  everything  which  is  needful  for  them ;  "  active  benevo- 
lence is  ignored.  There  is  no  recognition  of  the  obligation 
of  property  except  as  expressed  through  the  bond  of  citizen- 
ship and  the  state,  and  apparently  no  consciousness  that  such 
an  obh'gation  existed.  The  Hellenic  virtue  was  abstract,  or 
bounded  by  political  institutions  and  the  family.  It  could 
scan  the  horizon  with  a  penetrating  eye,  and  also  see  what 
ought  to  be  done  close  at  hand,  within  the  home;  but  the 
great  middle-ground  between  tlie  two  was  a  blank. 

There  are  also  splendid  sentiments  replete  with  ideas  of 
justice  scattered  through  Roman  literature,  but  their  applica- 
tion is  seldom  concrete.  They  are  suggested  platitudes  rather 
than  inspirations,  and  have  more  the  air  of  moral  musings 
than  lessons  intended  to  be  taught  and  learned.  They  lack 
life,  personality,  the  warmth  of  humanity,  and  read  more  like 
beautiful  words  put  together  than  noble  inspirations  welling 
from  the  conviction  of  a  full  heart. 

In  his  work  on  "  Manual  Training"  *  Mr.  Ham  has  occa- 
sion to  remark  on  the  shallow  humanitarian  ism  of  Roman 
philosophy  at  the  commencement  of  the  empire:  ''Seneca's 
moral  precepts  are  sublime,  but  his  political  maxims  are  atro- 
cious. Witness  the  pretence  of  an  all-embracing  love  for 
man — *  whenever  thou  seest  a  fellow-creature  in  distress  know 
that  thou  seest  a  human  being.'     Contrast  with  this  exalted 

*  Page  268,  et  seq. 


CHRISTIAN   TEACHINGS   ON   OWNERSHIP.  107 

sentiment  of  the  great  stoic  his  political  maxim,  'terror  is 
the  safeguard  of  a  kingdom,*  and  reflect  that  he  lived  under 
the  reigns  of  Claudius  and  Nero.  The  millions  of  slaves  in 
the  Roman  dominions  were  *  human  beings,'  but  Seneca  had 
no  practical  regard  for  them  as  'fellow-creatures  in  distress.' 
His  beautiful  humanitarian  sentiment  was  a  barren  ideality; 
it  bore  no  fruit,  but  his  brutal  political  maxim  caused  him  to 
thrive." 

There  is  nothing  indeed  in  the  most  refined  aphorisms  of 
the  ancient  classics  that  can  for  a  moment  be  compared  with 
the  earnest  simplicity  of  the  gospel,  and  wherever  reference  is 
made  in  either  to  the  duty  of  man  towards  his  fellows,  com- 
parison becomes  an  impossibility.  They  had  no  influence  on 
their  age,  they  touched  no  responsive  chord,  they  woke  no 
sleeping  desires  for  good ;  they  were  soulless  sayings  falling 
on  deaf  ears  and  dying  as  they  fell.  But  the  words  of  Jesus 
had  the  breath  of  eternity.  Dropped  here  and  there,  appa- 
rently at  random,  from  the  mountain  top,  in  the  corn-field, 
and  by  the  seaside,  among  Jewish  peasants,  publicans,  and 
fishermen,  there  has  sprung  from  them  all  that  the  world  now 
holds  high  and  holy,  all  that  is  noble  and  spiritual,  all  tliat 
transforms  man  from  an  intelligent  animal  into  a  being  little 
lower  than  the  angels,  all  that  fits  him  for  life  here  and  here- 
after. As  a  writer  who  has  himself  tested  the  power  of  Chris- 
tianity to  diminish  poverty,  crime,  and  misery,  eloquently 
says,*  **  With  Christianity  began  the  organized  and  individual 
charity  of  modern  Europe,  which  for  these  eighteen  centuries 
has  wiped  away  so  many  tears,  softened  so  much  suffering, 
saved  so  many  young  lives  from  misery  and  sin,  ministered  at 
so  many  death-beds,  made  the  solitary  evening  of  life  sweet 
to  so  many  forsaken  ones,  and  the  morning  glad  to  so  many 
who  would  have  been  born  to  sorrow  and  shame ;  which  in  so 
many  countries  has  cared  for  the  sick,  the  blind,  the  deaf,  the 
crippled,  the  outcast,  and  the  tempted ;  the  young,  the 
orphan,  the  foundling,  and  the  aged."     And  such  in  truth 

*  "  Gesta  Christi,"  page  loi. 


108:  APPLICABILITY  OF   DIVINE   RULES. 

have  been  the  fruits  of  the  few  recorded  words  of  Jesus,  so 
few  in  number  that  they  scarce  fill  fifty  of  these  pages,  while 
the  volumes  that  owe  their  existence  to  the  stoics  and  rhetori- 
cians, the  epicureans  and  philosophers,  shining  as  they  do  with 
an  intellectual  light  that  has  shed  a  far-off  brilliancy,  are  so 
paled  by  his  effulgence  that  even  "the  marvellous  brightness  of 
Plato  and  Socrates  grows  dim,  the  eloquence  of  Cicero  and 
Demosthenes  obscure,  and  the  inspiring  lines  of  Homer,  the 
stately  sonnets  of  Virgil,  and  the  wise  exhortations  of  Seneca, 
finite  conceptions,  tainted  with  the  grossness,  passion,  and 
littleness  of  sinful  natures. 

It  is  frequently  urged,  though  not  so  often  as  formerly,  that 
the  divine  rules  for  the  governing  of  men's  actions  are  inap- 
plicable to  the  ordinary  business  of  life;  that  any  one  who 
comported  his  affairs,  his  factory,  his  store,  or  his  professional 
career  by  them  would  certainly  fail  of  material  success,  and 
admitting  them  to  be  highly  good,  that  they  are  nevertheless 
very  impracticable. 

\  If  this  is  true,  if  they  are  too  altruistic,  too  refined  for  the 
gross  atmosphere  of  a  material  world  ;  if  to  do  justice,  to  help 
the  poor,  to  pay  fair  wages,  to  educate  the  laborer,  to  encour- 
age him  in  thrift  and  see  that  he  is  housed  as  a  human  being 
should  be;  if  to  assist  by  these  and  every  other  means  of 
sympathy  and  mercy  in  ameliorating  the  lot  of  the  worker, 
is  incompatible  with  personal  interests,  it  is  an  objection  to 
them  in  a  limited  sense,  and  it  would  have  to  be  conceded 
that  he  who  would  do  these  things  must  sacrifice  all  else  ex- 
cept spiritual  benefits.  But  if,  on  the  contrary,  every  man's 
inteiests  and  duties  are  in  harmony  with  those  of  every  other 
man's,  then  instead  of  being  as  stated,  they  become  the  most 
profitable  basis  for  human  action,  the  surest  and  strongest 
foundation  on  which  even  commercial  effort  can  be  built,  and 
as  axiomatic  as  the  moral  code  embodied  in  the  ten  command- 
ments. \ 

Leaving*  moral  and  Christian  obligations  aside,  and  taking 
only  the  visible  and  solid  ground  of  economic  considerations, 
does  it  not,  in  the  language  of  the  street,  "  pay"  to  be  a  fair 


VALUE    OP   EQUITY.  109 

master,  to  refrain  from  cutting  down  wages  to  their  lowest 
notcli,  to  take  an  active  interest  in  the  workman,  and  to  re- 
turn him  something  more  than  the  agreed  price  for  his  labor, 
by  api)ortioning  part  of  the  profit  on  it  to  his  personal  or 
community  benefit?  Is  there  not  in  fact  "a  distinct  eco- 
nomic value  attached  to  the  practice  of  equity  equal  to  its 
moral  value  ?" 

It  is  incontrovertible  that  those  communities — large  or 
small — are  always  the  most  tranquil,  prosperous,  and  contented 
where  capital  recognizes  its  duties,  and  looks  upon  industrial 
establishments  as  other  than  machines  for  extracting  the  utmost 
amount  of  profit  out  of  labor.  CThe  experience  of  ages  proves 
that  it  pays  the  state  to  be  just  and  humane.*  Does  it  not 
also  pay  the  corporation  and  individual  employer?  Unfair 
social  conditions  was  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  fall  of  the 
Roman  empire.  The  cataclysm  that  culminated  in  the  Reign 
of  Terror  was  a  result  of  a  long  continued  disregard  of  they 
commonest  duties  of  property.  The  strikes,  riots,  and  labor 
troubles  that  afflict  modern  society,  are  attended  by  a  loss  of 
profit  that  a  more  conciliatory  policy  might  obviate,  and  it  is 
apparent  that  in  most  disputes  the  largest  ultimate  gain  could 
have  been  attained  by  mutual  concessions,  or  better  still  by 
such  a  recognition  of  mutual  obligation  in  the  first  instance 
as  would  have  removed  all  cause  for  irritation.  Would  it  not 
therefore  as  a  mere  factor  in  profit  and  loss  be  wise  to  look 
upon  [the  acquirement  of  wealth  "as  power  to  be  employed 
under  the  general  law  of  love,"  instead  of  absolute  person- 
alty,'in  the  further  use  of  which  no  one  but  the  owner  has 
any  interest  ? 

In  a  paper  read  thirty  years  ago  before  the  English  Social 
Congress  by  a  very  large  employer  of  labor,f  its  author  said  : 
**  I  am  fully  convinced  by  the  experiments  I  have  made  and 
their  uniform  success,  that  it  is  possible  to  make  the  people 
feel  that  their  own  and  their  employers'  interests  are  identi- 

*  "  And  the  work  of  righteousness  shall  be  peace ;  and  the  effect  of 
righteousness,  quietness  and  assurance  for  ever." — Isaiah  32  :  17. 
t  Edward  Akroyd,  M.  P. 


110  VALUE   OF   EQUITY. 

cal,  provided  the  latter,  who  may  be  considered  the  stewards 
under  God  of  the  commercial  wealth  of  the  nation,  will 
acquit  themselves  of  their  responsibilities  towards  those  who, 
unfler  the  ordei  of  Providence,  are  intrusted  to  their  care." 

These  views  were  much  rarer  a  generation  ago  than  now, 
but  the  ideas  then  promulgated  have  since  been  acted  on  by 
many,  even  to  the  details  by  which  they  were  carried  out. 
The  interesting  consular  reports  of  1884,  on  ''  Labor  in 
Foreign  Countries,"  are  full  of  such  instances,  all  of  which 
bear  striking  and  unanimous  testimony  to  the  fact  that  the 
interest  of  the  employer  in  his  work-people  is  a  paying  in- 
terest, and  that,  where  it  prevails,  the  happiest  relations  exist ; 
to  the  manifest  advantage  of  both.  It  is  impossible  of  course 
to  say  what  the  difference  in  actual  percentage  of  profit  is  in 
any  given  case ;  but  it  is  not  an  unfair  inference  to  conclude 
that  when  the  existing  stability  enables  a  firm  to  have  simple 
i"egulations,  an  adherence  to  which  will  entitle  an  employe 
to  a  pension  after  twenty-five  years  service,  the  continuous 
average  returns  on  the  capital  must  be  satisfactory,  and  numer- 
ous cases  of  this  kind  are  mentioned  in  the  papers  referred  to. 

It  was  said  on  the  death  of  a  great  captain  of  industry  that 
his  more  conspicuous  gifts  were*  *'but  the  peaks,  high  eleva- 
tions, bearing  but  a  small  proportion  to  the  whole  mountain 
mass."  So  are  the  instances  that  occur  to  all  whenever  men- 
tion is  made  of  those  who  have  found  worldly  advantage  in 
accepting  their  gain  as  a  trust.  They  are  signal  landmarks 
whose  transfigured  summits  are  seen  afar,  while  obscured  by 
their  shadow,  yet  governed  no  less  by  the  influence  that  issued 
from  the  life  of  Christ  is  the  ** mountain  mass."  The  men 
unknown  outside  the  village  or  town,  whose  thought  is  for 
the  good  of  their  fellows,  whose  office  it  is  to  combine  the 
parental  authority  of  love  with  that  of  the  paymaster,  and 
whose  rule  is  honored  by  their  workmen  as  a  rule  of  justice. 
Like  the  little  hills  unmarked  on  the  maps  they  are  to  be 
found  everywhere,  and  their  very  number  makes  them  name- 
less. 

*  Funeral  sermon  on  Sir  Titus  Salt. 


RIGHT   USES  OF   WEALTH.  Ill 

Saltaire,  the  Cooper  Union,  the  Peabody  Buildings,  the 
Astor  Library,  Mason's  Orphanage  and  College  show  some 
of  the  right  uses  of  wealth  when  collected  in  bulk,  not  neces- 
sarily in  the  manner  of  giving,  but  in  its  spirit,  ahd  are  justi- 
fications of  great  stewardships  that  will  speak  to  coming 
generations  in  that  universal  language  of  friendship  and  com- 
passion which  requires  no  interpreter  but  the  soul.  The  men 
who  made  these  names  familiar  in  all  lands  "discovered  that 
wealth-making  is  but  a  part  of  commercial  and  professional 
success,"  and  that  by  the  expression  of  (Christian  sympathy 
in  Christian  deeds  they  were  erecting  a  buttress  for  their  own 
prosperity.  They  demonstrated  that  there  is  no  incompati- 
bility between  making  and  giving,  that  it  is  possible  to 
become  rich  in  material  possessions  and  yet  distribute,  and 
that  casting  bread  in  this  way  upon  the  waters  is  as  seed  sown 
for  increase. 

The  monarch  in  purple,  the  merchant  whose  vessels  are 
known  on  every  sea,  the  lord  of  industry  whose  factories  give 
bread  to  thousands,  alike  with  the  helpless  cripple,  the  ped- 
ler  whose  stock  can  be  borne  on  a  tray,  or  the  man  whose  art 
of  earning  is  to  carry  bricks,  are  only  short-timed  guests  in 
one  of  God's  many  worlds.  Ifwe  abuse  his  great  hospitality 
by  greed  and  selfishness,  or  wildly  regretting  that  we  cannot 
take  away  what  he  has  lent,  misuse  his  trust,  or  bestow  it 
without  caring  for  the  needs  of  the  humble  ones  whom  he 
equally  regards,  how  can  we  hope  that  when  the  gates  unclose 
to  the  palaces  on  high  that  he  will  bid  us  enter  and  ])artake 
again  ?  The  loving  Father  who  has  stored  rain  in  the  clouds, 
sun-heat  in  the  coal,  and  a  cake  of  bread  in  a  kernel  of  wheat, 
that  in  due  season  they  may  be  distributed,  chooses  his  stew- 
ards with  like  purpose,  and  as  they  are  faithful  to  their  charge, 
so  we  may  believe  will  be  their  reward.  "  But  whoso  hath  the 
world's  goods,  and  beholdeth  his  brother  in  need,  and  shutteth 
up  his  compassion  from  him,  how  doth  the  love  of  God  abide 
in  him?"* 
• ■ 

*  I  John  3:17,  revised  version. 


112  LABOR  KOT  A   COMMODITY. 

I  One  of  the  commonest  mistakes  of  capital  is  to  assume 
^  that  labor  is  a  commodity  to  be  purchased  at  the  lowest  mar- 
ket-rate like  any  other  article,  and,  whenever  possible,  cheap- 
ened. This  would  be  correct  if  the  labor  could  be  dissociated 
from  the  laborer.  But  in  pursuits  that  are  so  mechanical  as 
to  be  almost  automatic,  and  in  the  commonest  drudgery  of 
toil,  the  man  has  to  be  considered  as  well  as  his  hired  muscles 
and  time,  and  he  cannot  be  reduced  to  the  level  of  mechan- 
ism, be  his  work  ever  so  mechanical,  without  a  resulting 
injury  to  himself,  to  his  -Employer  and  to  society.  As  Mr. 
\  Hume  told  the  House  of  Commons  fifty  years  ago,  "low 
wages  tend  to  degrade  the  laborer,"  and  it  is  easy  to  see  that 
degradation  of  labor  is  insecurity  for  capital. 

There  are  two  ways  of  treating  men  in  the  matter  of  wages ; 
the  first  is  to  pay  them  as  little  as  they  will  take,  the  second 
as  much  as  the  profit  on  their  labor  will  afford.  ^  The  one  is 
the  parent  of  anarchy,  communism,  smouldering  rebellion, 
hatred,  strikes  and  discontent.  It  robs  the  worker  of  his 
share  in  the  glory  of  living  and  makes  the  world  a  prison. 
It  is  the  breeder  of  crime  and  pestilence,  the  recruiting  ser- 
geant for  the  penitentiary  and  the  poorhouse,  the  foe  of  self- 
respect  in  men  and  chastity  in  women.  It  peoples  the  streets 
at  night  with  the  bedizened  victims  of  its  wrongs,  and  tempts 
them  to  go  forth  from  garret  and  cellar,  to  shame.  It  turns 
the  mold  in  the  potter's  field  day  after  day  for  those  whom  it 
has  killed  by  privation,  and  rejoices  in  squalor  and  intemper- 
ance as  in  a  friend.  Virtue,  manhood,  society,  religion  have 
no  deadlier  foes  than  those  who  '*  oppress  the  hireling  in  his 
wages." 

''No  man,"  says  President  Chadbourne,  "and  corpora- 
tions must  be  held  to  the  same  accountability  as  men — no 
man  has  a  right  to  carry  on  a  business  that  destroys  manhood, 
that  destroys  the  conditions  of  manhood,  or  to  permanently 
employ  one  who  fails  to  act  on  the  principles  of  manhood." 
And  no  man  has  a  right  to  pay  such  low  wages,  if  his  products- 
Will  afford  better,  that  the  worker  can  scarce  keep  aflame  his 
own  life  or  that  of  wife  and  child.     It  is  a  matter  that  con- 


UNJUST  WAGES.  118 

cerns  others  besides  the  payer  and  receiver,  for  the  avaricious 
employer  punishes  society  that  he  may  make  wealth  fast,  and 
in  the  uprcaring  of  his  unrighteous  prosperity  casts  on  the 
community  the  task  of  undoing  his  mischiefs,  repairing  his 
omissions,  and  overcoming  their  evil  efiects.  In  his  pursuit 
of  riches  he  leaves  behind  a  trail  of  discontent  and  conscious 
injustice;  his  progress  is  marked  by  the  disaffection  of  his 
workers,  and  as  a  "  hard  master  "  he  does  more  to  set  class 
against  class,  disturb  religion,  and  injure  the  well-being  of 
his  neighbors  than  many  who  overtly  offend  against  the  law. 
For  he  puts  his  trust  in  oppression  and  builds  his  pyramid  like 
the  Pharaohs  from  the  half-requited  toil  of  labor. 

The  second  method  is  theantipode  of  all  this.  It  promotes 
national  pride,  manhood,  contentment  and  religion,  estab- 
lishes the  home,  encourages  aspiration,  temperance  and  thrift, 
represses  crime  and  impurity,  produces  citizens  whose  citizen- 
ship is  the  pride  of  the  state,  and  is  in  accordance  not  only 
with  the  teachings  of  the  Bible,  but  with  those  most  advanced 
principles  of  social  econoipy  which  now  recognize  that  well- 
paid  la')or  is  the  cheajiest.^'J*  Masters,  give  unto  your  servants 
that  which  is  just  and  equal,"  and  "the  husbandman  that 
laboreth  must  be  the  first  to  partake  of  the  fruit$,^  alone 
comprise  a  more  practical  exposition  of  the  economics  to 
which  society  must  ultimately  adjust  itself,  than  half  the 
books  pertaining  to  labor  and  capital  that  have  been  or  are 
likely  to  be  written.  They  mean  plainly  that  the  joint  creator 
of  wealth  must  be  paid  first  and  be  paid  fairly,  and  that  only 
after  this  has  been  done  must  capital  take  its  increase.  iThey 
mean,  man  first  and  money  afterwards,  and  it  will  be  found 
that  this  law  of  God  is  also  the  best  law  for  industrial  society 
and  that  duty  runs  in  the  same  current  with  interest  J 

If  all  employers  were  to  pay  no  more  than  wouldJ furnish  a 
bare  subsistence,  there  would  be  little  money  to  spend  except 
for  the  cheapest  articles  of  food  and  clothing,  and  two-thirds 
of  the  manufactories  would  have  to  close,  while,  on  the  con- 
trary^ the  more  equitably  the  products  of  labor  are  distributed 
by  just  payment,  the  more  money  will  there  be  in  the  hands 
8 


114  EFFECT   OF   UNJUST   WAGES. 

of  the  wage  classes  with  which  to  purchase  articles  of  manu- 
facture.! Thus,  if  the  laborer  who  earns  $9.00  per  week  is 
paid  Jig. 00,  and  spends  the  addition  rightly,  the  maker  of 
some  useful  thing  will  have  been  benefited  therefrom,  and  in 
a  city  of  10,000  wage-earners  the  general  increase  in  business 
prosperity  at  the  end  of  a  month  would  be  so  marked  as  favor- 
ably to  affect  the  profits  of  every  one  in  the  community.  If 
other  manufacturers  in  other  towns  did  the  same,  the  reversion 
of  profit  from  the  enlarged  volume  of  business  would  probably 
nearly  offset  the  extra  payment,  leaving  the  gain  from  added 
efficiency  to  make  up  a  full  compensation. 

The  employer  may  ask:  *'If  I  pay  10  percent,  more  to 
my  clerks  and  shopmen,  and  to  the  fifty  girls  who  run  my 
sewing  machines,  will  not  competition  undersell  me?"  Ex- 
perience replies:  "No,  you  will  get  25  per  cent,  better 
service,  your  clerks  will  be  more  careful  of  your  property, 
sell  more  goods  and  work  for  your  interests  outside  as  well  as 
inside  the  store,  while  your  girls  will  produce  an  article  so 
much  superior  to  your  rival's  that  even  if  the  immediate 
profits  are  less,  increased  sales  will  certainly  more  than  repay 
the  difference."  It  is  admitted  as  an  uncontrovertible  fact 
that  in  manual  labor  cheap  workmen  are  unprofitable.  Sir 
Thomas  Brassey's  ofl-quoted  testimony  in  ''Work  and 
Wages"  as  to  his  father's  experience  on  this  point  was  so 
unanswerable  as  to  be  accepted  by  every  writer  in  England 
and  America,  and  it  was  an  experience  based  on  the  employ- 
ment of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men.  Sir  Francis  Cross- 
ley,  another  large  employer  in  the  different  field  of  textile 
manufactures,  told  his  confreres  in  parliament,  long  before  Sir 
Thomas  Brassey's  book  was  written,  that  it  was  a  great  mistake 
to  suppose  that  the  lowest-priced  labor  was  always  the  cheap- 
est, and  almost  any  one  who  has  made  the  test  can  confirm  it 
from  personal  observation. 

The  efficacy  of  British  labor  over  continental,  arises  prin- 
cipally from  the  fact  that  it  is  better  paid,  and  the  superiority 
of  ordinary  American  labor  over  both  comes  from  its  still 
more  liberal  compensation,  coupled  with  the  higher  intelli- 


LIBERALITY   PROFITABLE.  115 

gence  that  springs  from  universal  education.  The  proposition 
is  also  true  when  reversed(""B5th  English  and  American  labor 
receive  greater  pay  than  that  of  other  countries  because  they 
are  more  efficient,  but  this  efficiency  has  its  origin  in  habits 
of  life  which  are  induced  by  remuneration,  so  that  each  has  a 
beneficial  reflexaction  oiijhejnherj^ 

The  farmer  who  expects  to  do  a  good  day's  plowing  will  see 
that  his  horses  are  in  proper  condition  from  food  and  stabling. 
What  oats  are  to  the  animal,  wages  are  to  the  man.  The 
employer  who  desires  honest  service  of  any  kind  must  offer 
value  for  value,  and  he  will  then  find,  as  others  have  done, 
that  in  the  behests  of  the  gospel  there  is  not  only  increase  of 
honor,  but  that  the  balance  will  also  be  on  the  right  side  of 
his  ledger.  Just  liberality  is  never  lost,  and  cannot  be  wasted. 
No  one  ever  heard  of  a  man  ruining  his  business  by  giving 
overweight,  or  of  a  firm  or  corporation  suffering  in  purse  by 
doing  a  little  more  for  its  employes  than  the  hiring  contract 
required.  Generosity  is  not  confined  to  capitalists,  and  its 
recipient  can  in  a  hundred  ways  return  good-will  for  good- 
will, consideration  for  consideration,  frequently  when  least 
expected.  **Ad  valorem"  has  a  double  meaning.  The  re- 
ceiver can  give  full  value  as  well  as  the  seller  and  sometimes 
repay  overpayment  tenfold. 

Vriiere  is  a  school  of  philosophy  of  which  Mr.  Herbert  Spen- 
cer is  the  leader  that  would  almost  expunge  the  words  ''social 
obligation"  from  the  economic  code  and  substitute  for  them 
the  taking  phrase  "  self-help."  They  base  their  premises  on 
a  supposed  irreconcilable  divergence  between  the  duty  of  help- 
ing one's  self  and  looking  to  others  for  help,  much  as  if  a  man 
who  had  fallen  overboard  had  no  right  to  expect  a  rope  from 
the  busy  hand  on  deck.  With  level,  plumb,  and  rule  they 
would  accord  to  all  a  just  equilibrium,  but  if  any  sway  to  the 
right  or  left,  it  is  at  their  own  peril,  and  for  those  who  fall 
society  must  have  no  further  concern.  [  **  Those  who  have 
little  or  nothing,"  they  say,  *'are  alwa5^  wanting  something 
from  others  who  have  managed  to  acquire  and  to  save,"  and 


116  MUTUAL   HELP. 

they  protest  against  the  constant  enlargement  of  state  duties 
as  a  wrong  to  the  prosperous  in  the  community,  for  the  benefit 
of  the  careless  and  improvident. 

*'  If  you  cannot  take  care  of  yourself,  don't  ask  your  neigh- 
bor to  do  it,"  was  the  answer  probably  made  by  the  Levite  as 
he  passed  the  man  who  had  fallen  among  robbers  and  lay  half 
dead  on  the  road  from  Jerusalem.  /Such  a  doctrine  is  the 
apotheosis  of  selfishness,  and  the  very  opposite  of  the  Christian 
behest  that  bids  us  to  look  upon  the  world  as  one  great  family.* 
There  are  two  fallacies  in  this  exposition  of  social  relations. 
The  first  is  that  men  are  always  responsible  for  their  want  of 
success.  This  would  eliminate  sickness,  accident,  and  sudden 
5eath7 commercial  disasters,  war,  the  destructive  elements  of 
nature,  and  all  unforeseen  contingencies,  as  a  factor  in  human 
prosperity,  and  it  would  also  assume  that  every  person  started 
in  life  with  an  exact  equality  of  opportunity.  It  takes  no 
account  of  human  frailty  and  little  of  the  individual,  but  like 
the  ancient  Hellenic  republics  considers  only  the  supposed 
good  of  the  state,  neglecting  the  fact  that  the  state  is  but  an 
aggregate  of  units  and  that  with  universal  suffrage,  as  the  units 
are,  so  the  state  must  be. 

jAs  might  be  expected  from  such  philosophy  its  adherents 
always  sing  the  song  of  the  victor.  They  tacitly  imply  that 
the  winners  in  the  struggle  for  existence  are  the  most  worthy 
and  that  the  losers  have  been  deficient  in  some  virtue,  whereas 
modern  life  is  still  very  much  like  the  conflict  of  modern 
armies,  in  which  the  strong,  the  brave,  and  sometimes  the 
least  exposed  are  laid  low,  while  the  weak,  the  skulker  and  the 
timorous  are  left  to  join  in  the  shouts  of  triumph.  At  the 
commencement  of  a  battle  no  one  can  tell  who  will  survive, 
and  at  the  commencement  of  a  decade  no  one  can  predict 
with  the  slightest  certainty  who  are  going  to  be  the  successful 


*  "  The  more  Christianity  becomes  despoiled  of  doo;mas,  the  more  the 
ideas  of  moral  and  social  reform  contained  in  Christ's  teachings  are 
brought  forward  as  the  chief  aim,  the  more  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  prin- 
ciples will  be  shunned  and  avoided." — Eviile  de  Laveleye,  Contempo- 
rary Review,  April,  1885. 


MAN   versus  STATE.  117 

men  at  its  close;  for  it  is  as  true  to-day  as  when  first  written 
tliat  the  race  is  not  always  to  the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the 
strong. 

The  latent  possibilities  of  most  people  are  much  higher 
than  their  attainments.  They  are  stunted  and  dwarfed  by 
environment,  or  repressed  by  unfavorable  conditions,  and  thus 
the  better  part  of  themselves,  unaided  by  favoring  opportu- 
nity, is  either  totally  confined  or  expands  to  but  a  small  por- 
tion of  its  capacities.  It  is  these  repressions  that  Christianity, 
through  society,  is  seeking  to  remove  by  exalting  the  humble 
and  weak  to  the  full  altitude  of  their  manhood,  and  it  is  this 
compassion  for  frailty,  misfortune  and  the  repentant  wrong- 
doer, that  constitutes  the  great  glory  of  the  Christian  religion .\ 
PThe  second  fallacy  is,  that  men  have  no  right  to  look  'to 
legislative  interference  for  the  prevention  of  removable  unfair- 
nesses, and  that  the  functions  of  government  should  be  lim- 
ited to  the  protection  of  life,  property,  and  the  enforcement 
of  contracts,!  though  one  Spencerian  disciple  has  even  declared 
that  the  protection  of  life  is  beyond  the  true  scope  of  legisla- 
tion. Tlie  professor  of  Politj^cal  and  Social  Science  in  Yale 
College  has  written  that  **The  safety  of  workmen  from 
machinery,  the  ventilation  and  sanitary  arrangements  required 
by  factories,  the  special  precautions  of  certain  processes,  the 
hours  of  labor  of  women  and  children,  the  schooling  of  chil- 
dren, the  limits  of  age  for  employed  children,  Sunday  work, 
hours  of  labor — these  and  other  like  matters  ought  to  be  con- 
trolled by  the  men  themselves They  ought  to  protect 

their  own  women  and  children.'"^  This  is  the  very  thing  they 
have  been  trying  to  do  for  two  thousand  years,  and  now  that 
they  have  succeeded,  within  the  law,  a  cry  is  raised  that 
**The  fashion  of  the  times  is  to  run  to  Government  boards, 
commissions,  and  inspectors  to  set  right  anything  that  is 
wrong. "f    The  i)eople  are  the  state,  and  if  they  desire  to  regu- 


*  "  Ayhat  Social  Classes  Owe  lo  Each  Other,"  by  William  Graham 
Sumner,  pages  94,  95. 
t  /dit/.,  page  97. 


/ 

118  MAN  versus  state. 

late  their  own  safety,  the  education  of  their  own  children,  and 
the  protection  of  their  wives  and  daughters  through  "govern- 
ment boards,  commissions,  and  inspectors,"  who  is  to  forbid? 
They  have  been  struggling  for  this  power  since  the  days  of 
Egypt,  and  at  last  after  the  blood  and  battle  of  ages  it  is 
within  their  grasp.  Shall  A,  B,  and  C  relinquish  it  because 
D  is  not  exposed  to  the  danger  of  machinery,  and  can  afford, 
perhaps  through  inherited  accumulation,  to  pay  for  the  educa- 
tion of  his  own  son  ?  The  function  of  a  government  is  any- 
thing that  the  governed  may  depute  to  it  for  the  general  good, 
and  is  it  not  better  to  enact  laws  of  general  applicability  than 
to  make  each  shop  or  union  a  law  unto  itself?  The  lesser 
motive  of  worldly  wisdom  will  answer  this,  even  without 
appeal  to  charity  or  equity,  and  it  has  been  answered  on  purely 
economic  grounds  by  the  legislation  of  every  enlightened 
nation,  for  fifty  years  past. 

>The  Spencerian  philosophy  is  a  direct  application  of  Dar- 
winism to  sociology.  In  its  admiration  of  strength,  it  ignores 
those  sentiments  that  make  man  something  more  than  a  gre- 
garious animal.  The  little  human  flower  that  comes  into 
existence  on  impoverished  soil  must  perish  because  it  is  no 
one's  duty  to  tend  it.  J  The  sapling  exposed  to  the  wind  must 
grow  into  a  crooked  tree,  because  it  would  be  wrong  to  have  a 
state  gardener  to  tie  it  to  the  supporting  stick.  The  feeble 
in  the  state  must  suffer  for  their  weakness  and  the  poor  for 
their  poverty.  Its  unrelenting  attitude  is,  *'If  you  are  not 
strong  enough  to  live  from  your  present  strength  you  must 
die,  and  it  is  better  for  the  community  that  you  should." 
Had  such  a  rule  always  prevailed,  the  world  to-day  would  yet 
be  a  great  habitation  of  slaves.  Modernized  Neros  and  Cali- 
gulas,  conforming  perhaps  somewhat  in  fashion  to  the  greater 
polish  of  "Louis  the  Well-Beloved,"  would  be  its  masters, 
and  our  civilization  as  barren  of  humanity  as  when  imperial 
Rome  governing  on  these  very  principles  had  its  murderous 
hand  on  the  throat  of  Euro{)e. 

Christianity  says  otherwise.     Its  teachings  are,  "Inasmuch 
as  ye  did  it  not  to  one  of  the  least  of  these,  ye  did  it  not  to 


STATE  AID.  119 

me.'*  Its  helping  hand  is  ever  extended  to  raise  those  who 
have  fallen,  to  siip[)ort  those  who  stumble,  and  bear  the  bur- 
dens of  those  who  are  heavily  weighted  in  the  journey. 
Which  of  these  two  opposing  theories  is  going  to  exercise  the 
better  influence  on  human  progress?  Shall  we  give  up  our 
state-aided  hospitals,  orplian  asylums  and  charities,  close  our 
schools  and  colleges,  and  tell  wealth  to  keep  its  check-book 
in  its  safe  because  there  is  no  room  for  its  ministry,  and  that 
its  only  legitimate  use  is  to  get  increase  by  productive  em- 
ployment ?  Or  shall  we  admit  that  we  are  bound  together  so 
closely  that  the  hurt  of  one  is  felt  in  some  way  by  all,  that 
property  has  duties  differing  from  labor,  and  say  with  Christ, 
**  Therefore  all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should 
daao  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them  "  ? 

(The  Christian  obligation  of  the  wealthy  to  do  all  that  they 
can  for  others,  is  a  commandment  that  applies  with  equal 
force  to  all  ranks  in  the  community,  to  the  laborer  as  well  as 
to  the  capitalist.!  Yet  because  the  ability  of  one  class  is  so 
much  greater  ilian  the  other,  more  is  required  of  them. 
Wealth  is  a  form  of  power,  and  the  possessors  of  it  are  rightly 
held  amenable  for  its  exercise.  Labor  is  power  in  another 
form,  and  until  recently  society  hedged  itself  with  safeguards 
against  the  strength  of  numbers.  Christianity  tells  both  to 
do  their  duty  to  each  other,  and  only  emphasizes  it&_instruc- 
tions  to  the  one  because  of  greater  responsibility.  '  Nor  does 
it  in  any  way  impair  that  dutyof^lf-help  on  which  such 
stress  is  laid  by  the  new  school  of  reasoning.  Every  intelli- 
gent person  will  give  a  qualified  assent  to  Mr.  Smiles*  propo- 
sition that  "■  the  highest  patriotism  and  philanthropy  consist 
not  so  much  in  altering  laws  and  modifying  institutions,  as 
in  helping  and  stimulating  men  to  elevate  and  improve  them- 
selves by  their  own  free  and  independent  individual  action."  * 
So  if  the  man  overboard  will  not  seize  the  rope  when  thrown 
to  him  he  must  drown,  but  if  men  are  constantly  falling  from 
the  vessel  because  there  are  no  bulwarrks,  we  ought  to  alter 

*  "SelMIelp,"  page  23. 


120  THE   TRAMP  QUESTION, 

and  modify  the  ship's  construction  so  as  to  render  that  par- 
ticular form  of  accident  infrequen^. ) 

jThere  is  less  need  to  preach  the  doctrine  of  self-help  than 
is  generally  supposed.  One  of  the  dowers  of  youth  is  ambi- 
tion, and  unless  men  become  hopelessly  entangled  in  diffi- 
culties, or  a  prey  to  destroying  vices,  it  remains  a  part  of  their 
nature  long  after  friends  have  seen  the  narrow  bounds  of  their 
capacities.  What  the  race  is  most  in  need  of  is  not  self-help 
but  self-renunciation,  or  if  this  is  too  great  a  demand  on  or- 
dinary nature,  mutual  help.  The  one  is  of  the  man — human, 
and  there  will  always  be  plenty  of  it  in  this  world ;  the  other 
is  the  offspring  of  the  divine,  of  which  there  can' never  be 
enough.  Many  of  the  heroes  of  Mr.  Smiles'  well-known 
work  would  probably  have  come  to  nothing  but  for  the  help- 
ing hand  at  a  moment  when  discouragement  possessed  them, 
as  the  author  has  pointed  out,*  and  there  is  hardly  an  hour 
in  any  man's  life  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave  when  he  can 
truly  say  *'  I  depend  alone  on  myself.'/ 

Idleness  and  shiftlessness  nowhere  find  any  countenance  in 
the  Bible.  It  is  as  plain  spoken  on  these  matters  as  on  all 
others. t  Christianity  did  not  separate  thrift  and  hard  work 
from  duty.  The  Lord  of  the  poor  in  one  of  his  twofold  re- 
lations was  a  mechanic ;  he  selected  his  disciples  from  the 
ranks  of  toil  and  as  constantly  inculcated  industry  as  the  com- 
panion virtues.  Even  the  question  of  wandering  idlers,  an 
evil  that  attracts  so  much  attention  to-day,  was  answered  by 
the  early  church  with  a  wisdom  we  have  not  yet  approached, 
as  maybe  seen  from  that  recently  discovered  compendium  of 
Christian  faith,  the  **  Teachings  of  the  Twelve  Apostles."  J 

*  "  Although  much  may  lie  accomplished  4)y  means  of  individual  in- 
dustry and  energy  ...  it  must  at  the  same  time  be  acknowledged  that 
the  help  which  is  drawn  from  others  in  the  journey  of  life  is  of  very  great 
importance.  .  .  .  From  infancy  to  old  age  all  are  more  or  less  indebted 
to  others  for  nurture  and  culture,  and  the  best  and  strongest  are  usually 
found  the  readiest  to  acknowledge  such  help." — '•  Self  Help,"  page  45. 

f  See  Psalms  101-3 ;  Prov.  6  :  6-1 1 ;  Prov.  10  :  4,  5 ;  Prov.  24  :  30-34; 
Prov.  26  :  13-16;  Eccl.  9  :  10;  2  Thess.  3:  10-15. 

X  "  Let  every  one  who  cometh  be  received  in  the  name  of  the  Lord : 
but  then  ye  shall  prove  him,  and  distingui«h  the  true  from  the  false  :  for 


/ 


WEALTH   AS  LEADER.  121 

A  great  pulpit  orator  once  said  that  **  if  a  man  employs  his 
prosperity  as  a  garner  in  which  are  gathered  the  seeds  of  other 
men's  advantages  ...  he  will  rob  prosperity  of  its  shari)cst 
danger."*  Every  selfish  use  of  wealth  for  inordinate  dis- 
play or  startling  luxury,  every  misuse  through  arrogant  power, 
and  every  action  that  shows  a  cold  indifference  to  the  well- 
being  of  the  masses  who  toil,  as  surely  increases  that  danger, 
come  in  what  shape  it  may,  as  the  contrary  course  decreases 
it  and  strengthens  the  tenure. 

When  rank  was  a  law  unto  itself  and  superior  to  all  the 
limitations  placed  on  men  of  humbler  birth,  it  yet  acknowl- 
edged for  the  sake  of  honor  a  higher  obligation  to  certain 
noble  principles  than  was  demanded  of  others  in  the  state. 
The  grand  motto  of  ^^  fwblesse  oblige  ^^  has  spurred  thousands 
of  sluggish  souls  to  deeds  of  chivalry,  who  else  would  have 
spent  their  lives  in  the  pursuit  of  pleasure.  Impelled  by  it, 
the  place  of  peril  became  the  coveted  one  :  the  deadliest  gap 
in  the  breach  the  most  desired  :  the  front  rank  in  the  forlorn 
hope  a  birthright.  Once  this  duty  of  leadership  by  right  of 
station  was  only  fealty  to  a  heroic  ideal,  now  it  involves  the 
highest  trust  that  God  has  placed  in  keeping.  (Therefore  if 
no  other  considerations  prevail  with  wealth,  if  the  words  of 
the  Master  fall  unheeded,  if  duty  and  self-denial  are  terms 
that  shock  the  modern  ear,  if  the  gathering  clouds  cast  no 
shadowy  foreboding,  let  us  again  make  that  old  appeal  and 
say,  **  if  nothing  else  impels,  nobility  obliges.^ 

ye  must  have  prudence.  If  he  who  cometh  be  a  wanderer,  ye  shall  help 
him  lo  the  best  of  your  power:  but  he  shall  not  abide  with  you  lonjjer 
than  two  or  three  days,  and  thnt  only  if  it  l)e  needful.  But  if  lie  be  will- 
inj»  to  remain  among  you,  inasmuch  as  he  is  a  handicrnft^^man,  then  he 
shall  lalx)r  and  eat.  But  if  he  understandeth  no  handicraft,  then  take  ye 
care  according  to  your  discernment,  that  no  Christian  live  among  you  as 
an  idler.  But  if  he  willeih  not  so  to  order  his  life,  then  is  he  one  who 
speculates  with  Christ  for  gain  :  keep  yourselves  far  froui  such." — 
Chapter  12. 
*  "  Views  and  Experiences  on  Religious  Subjects,"  by  II.  W.  Beecher. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   HELPING   HAND. 

"  They  helped  every  one  his  neighbor ;  and  every  one  said  to  his  brother, 
Be  of  wood  courage." — Isaiah  41   :  6. 

"The  men  who  have  become  rich  in  commerce  must  show  themselves 
active  in  their  sympathies  for  all  just  demands,  benevolent  and  kindly  in 
the  presence  of  distress.  The  exercise  of  these  excellent  virtues,  while  it 
is  in  the  first  place  a  paramount  duty,  will  undoubtedly  bring  with  it  to 
the  state  and  the  society  in  which  we  live  the  immediate  and  priceless 
blessing  of  social  union  and  contentment." — Sir  I'komas  Brassey. 

Whatever  differences  of  opinion  there  may  be  between  the 
adherents  of  contending  extremes,  whether  we  incline  to  those 
principles  of  X^aissez-faire  which  so  endeared  themselves  to 
the  earlier  writers  on  sociology  as  well  as  to  its  later  school, 
or  to  that  cardinal  doctrine  of  socialism,  state  responsibility 
for  the  conduct  of  every  affair  of  life,  none  can  object  to  the 
happy  mean  of  fostering  social  or  industrial  improvements 
through  that  law  of  love  which  it  has  been  well  said,  *'  in  its 
incipient  form  the  race  is  now  struggling  to  take  up."  Here 
is  a  neutral  ground  on  which  all  can  meet  without  fear  of  con- 
flict, and  where  the  only  arguments  likely  to  be  heard  are  as 
to  the  most  effective  methods  of  adopting  means  to  endsf 

The  views  on  this  point  will  probably  be  as  varied  as  the 
idiosyncrasies  of  the  speakers,  but  it  is  of  small  import  what 
line  each  one  takes  so  long  as  they  all  converge  at  a  common 
centre;  because  every  material  and  moral  aid  to  well-doing, 
whether  effected  through  the  agencies  of  temperance,  thrift, 
co-operation,  insurance,  trades-unions,  sanitation  or  education 
is  for  some  a  stepping  stone  to  higher  things.  Under  any 
circumstances  society  will  be  a  gainer ;  as  the  progress  of  a 
people  like  an  army  is  merely  the  movement  of  individuals  in 
a  given  direction.  And  whether  we  devote  our  energies  to 
(122) 


CARE  OF  EUROPEAN  EMPLOVERt.  123 

encouraging  the  foot-sore  and  weary,  picking  up  the  sick  and 
wounded,  gathering  the  straggler,  removing  impediments,  or 
providing  healthful  camping  grounds  and  food,  all  alike  ac- 
celerate the  onward  array  and  hasten  its  debouche  from  the 
sterile  mountains  to  that  land  of  promise,  which  once  made 
visible  by  faith,  is  at  this  present  to  be  clearly  seen,  though 
afar. 

Thus  the  employer  can  do  many  things  for  the  benefit  of 
his  workers  that  would  be  beyond  the  scope  of  the  capitalist 
whose  income  is  derived  from  interest  or  land,  and  the  capi- 
talist can  inaugurate  or  assist  in  other  heli)ful  methods  that 
are  outside  the  immediate  province  of  the  busy  merchant  or 
manufacturer. 

^  ^he  paternal  care  of  some  foreign  employers  for  their 
operatives  is  illustrated  in  the  great  linen  factory  of  M.  Rey, 
at  Ruysbroeck,  near  Brussels,  where  3000  persons  are  engaged. 
All  food  supplies  are  sold  to  them  at  first  wholesale  cost,  with 
a  small  addition  to  cover  expenses;  and  if  any  profit  should 
accrue  it  is  turned  over  to  an  invalid  fund  to  which  all  are 
required  to  contribute  3  per  cent,  of  their  wages.  From  this 
fund  every  person  receives  half  pay  during  sickness,  in  addi- 
tion to  medicine  and  medical  attendance ;  and  when  a  married 
workman  dies  his  widow  is  pensioned  for  a  term  of  years. 
Fifteen  years  continual  service  entitles  the  invalided  workman 
to  $5.77  per  month  for  life.  To  encourage  the  young  in 
thrift  M.  Rey  pays  10  per  cent,  interest  on  deposits  in  the 
firm  savings  bank,  when  the  amount  is  under  $60.00,  and  7^ 
on  all  above.  Adults  receive  5  per  cent,  interest,  and  when 
they  have  saved  $200.00,  a  further  sum  is  advanced,  if  de- 
sired, to  enable  them  to  build  a  home.  Some  30  houses  with 
gardens  attached  are  also  rented  to  the  more  meritorious  em- 
ployes at  about  half  the  prevailing  rates. 

The  immense  foundry  and  machine  shops  of  the  **  Societe 
Anonyme  de  Marcinelle  et  Couillet  '*  near  Charleroi  afford 
a  similar  striking  proof  of  wise  direction  and  encouragement 
on  the  part  of  a  company.  As  in  M.  Rey's  establishment 
the  **  Assistance  and  Pension  Fund"   is  a  compulsory  one, 


124  CARE  OF  EUROPEAN  EMPLOYERS. 

from  which  the  sick  and  injured  receive  medical  attendance 
and  support  for  six  months,  after  which  if  the  infirmity  is  in- 
curable the  sufferer  is  placed  on  a  permanent  pension,  and  at 
the  age  of  60,  if  the  employe  has  been  25  years  in  the  com- 
pany's service,  he  is  retired  on  a  fair  provision.  The  widows 
and  children  of  those  killed  in  service  are  also  provided  for, 
and  5  per  cent,  interest  is  paid  on  savings  deposited  in  the 
company's  treasury.  Seven  schools,  varying  in  grade  from 
the  Kindergarten  to  the  technical,  are  established,  and  a  gen- 
erous scheme  has  been  in  operation  for  some  time  by  which 
any  employe  who  owns  the  ground  and  can  pay  one-fifth  of 
the  cost  of  building  a  house,  is  provided  with  the  necessary 
balance,  and  after  8  years  habitation  and  the  payment  of  pre- 
vailing rental,  it  becomes  the  property  of  its  resident. 

The  firm  of  Meister,  Lucius  &  Bruning,  engaged  in  the 
manufacture  of  aniline,  near  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  has  about 
1300  persons  in  its  employment.  A  few  years  ago  it  en- 
dowed an  association  for  the  support  of  the  families  of  in- 
valided and  deceased  workmen,  by  a  donation  of  $35,700. 
In  addition  there  is  a  voluntary  association  for  the  support  of 
the  sick  to  which  each  worker  contributes  i  per  cent,  of  his 
earnings,  and  the  firm  adds  a  sum  equal  to  50  per  cent,  of 
this  total.  Besides  regular  wages,  premiums  are  annually 
paid  for  exceptional  industry,  and  these  amounted  in  1883 
to  over  $4000.  A  workman  once  engaged  is  never  dis- 
charged for  age,  infirmity  or  sickness.  Comfortable  dwelling- 
houses  with  gardens  attached  are  provided  for  the  men  at 
low  rentals,  and  dinner  is  furnished  the  employes  at  a  nominal 
sum.  The  late  Mme.  Boucicault,  of  the  well-known  magasin 
Bon  Marche,  in  Paris,  was  also  successful  in  enlisting  the 
hearts  as  well  as  the  hands  of  the  many  thousands  of  people 
employed  by  this  concern.  The  capital  of  the  Provident  So- 
ciety connected  with  the  house  is  now  $300,000,  and  two 
years  before  her  death  Madame  Boucicault  founded  a  home 
for  her  old  and  disabled  employes  at  a  cost  of  $1,000,000. 
The  educational  and  other  facilities  for  mental,  moral  and 
industrial  elevation  that  were  afforded  to  the  workers  by  this 


CARE  OP  EUROPEAN  EMPLOYERS.  125 

lady's  liberality  has  been  a  subject  for  frequent  description, 
and  the  truly  Christian  management  of  the  entire  establish- 
ment (while  in  strict  conformity  with  business  principles)  has 
constituted  it  one  of  the  industrial  wonders  of  the  French 
metropolis.  These  instances  can  be  paralleled  by  a  large 
number  in  Belgium  and  Germany,  as  at  a  textile  factory  at 
Wustergiersdorf,  in  Silesia,*  where  the  owners  support  an  or- 
phanage and  kindergarten,  supply  meals  for  two  and  three- 
eighths  cents,  and  provide  good  dwellings  for  their  people ;  and 
in  Bremen  where  it  is  customary  in  most  concerns  to  pay  the 
sufferers  from  accidents  incurred  in  actual  employment  full 
daily  wages,  and  in  case  of  death  from  $500  to  $700  to  the 
widow.  Indeed  in  many  of  the  small  manufacturing  towns 
of  central  Europe  the  feeling  between  employer  and  employed 
borders  on  the  patriarchal,  but  it  is  rather  a  survival  of  former 
ties,  cultivated  by  the  adoption  of  social  improvements,  than 
a  development  arising  from  modern  efforts.  The  most  prom- 
inent exception  is  that  of  M.  Godin's  wonderfully  successful 
experiment  at  Guise,  to  be  mentioned  hereafter,  in  which  a 
beginning  was  made  without  any  existing  prior  conditions 
of  hereditary  regard,  or  the  fixity  of  a  limited  population, 
that  are  found  in  the  other  cases. 

One  or  two  of  the  parental  methods  adopted  by  continental 
employers  might  not  commend  themselves  to  the  ideas  of 
English  or  American  workmen,  but  all  can  appreciate  the  wise 
generosity  that  places  a  home  within  reach,  or  provides  for 
education  and  the  encouragement  of  thrift.  Mr.  R.  G. 
Hazard,  the  principal  owner  of  the  Peace  Dale  Manufactur- 
ing Company,  of  Peace  Dale,  Rhode  Island,  has  always  made 
a  practice  of  extending  pecuniary  assistance  in  various  ways, 


♦  In  Silesia  "  Nearly  all  large  factories,  iron  mills,  etc.,  have  connected 
with  them  institutions  for  the  improvement  of  the  workpeople,  among 
which  may  be  mentioned  invalid  funds  and  savings  hanks,  hospitals,  Sun- 
day-schools, libraries,  cheap  and  comfortable  dwellings,  co-ofjerative 
stores,  loan  associations,  co-operative  kitchens  and  free  medical  attend- 
ance. The  employer  generally  has  a  paternal  regard  for  the  moral  and 
material  welfare  of  the  people." — U.  S.  Consular  Reports :  "  Labor  in 
Foreign  Countries,"  page  35. 


126  CARE    OF   AMERICAN    EMPLOYERS. 

to  enable  his  employes  to  live  in  their  own  homes.     Some- 
times his  firm  has  given  possession  of  a  piece  of  land  on  the 
agreement  that  the  deed  should  follow  payment,  and  in  other 
cases  money  has  been  advanced  to  buy  or  build  a  house  and 
the  mortgage  taken  as  security.     There  are  forty  houses  in 
this  small  village  owned  by  their  men  most  of  them  paid  for 
under  this  system.     The  company  also  pensions  at  discretion 
its  superannuated  workers,  or  continues  them  in  nominal  em- 
ployment at  usual  wages.     The  efforts  of  the  Akroyds  and 
Crossleys,  of  Halifax,  the  Marshalls,  of  Leeds,  and  the  Pull- 
man Palace  Car  Company,  in  the  thriving  town  near  Chicago, 
all  too  well  known  to  require   detail,  illustrate   on   a  great 
scale   that    just  mingling   of   authority  with    liberality  that 
-.marks    the   judicious  direction    of  the  far-seeing   employer. 
I  By  means  of  schools,  co-operative   stores,  libraries,  pleasant 
rdwellings  and  savings  banks,  they  have  combined  the  strictest 
I  laws  of  commercial  success  with  the  largest  duty  and  made 
/  their  own  wealth-getting  the  prosperity  of  labor.*      There 
has  been  no  flavor  of  charity  in  the  offer  of  aid  and  no  sug- 
gestion of  laclTing  self-respect  in  its  acceptance.     They  are 
notable  instances  because  as  yet  occasional,  but  each  year  is 
adding  to  the  number,  and  will  add  to  it  increasingly  as  fast 
as  men  discover  that   the  true  science  of  sociology  is  the 
simple  rule  of  duty,  interpreted  by  sympathy,  f 

In  discussing  the  ethics  of  ownership,  fhe  general  proposi- 
tion was  laid  down  that  Christian  duty,  even  when  involving 
a  loss  of  present  profit,  ultimately  resulted  in  the  highest  ma- 
terii^l  advantage,  and  the  same  rule  applies  to  all  those  forms 
of  assistance  that  enable  the  young  to  become  self-dependent, 
that  bring  fair  opportunity  for  usefulness  nearer  to  its  eager 
seekers,  that  encourage  the  weak  to  become  strong  in  resist- 
ing the  temptations  of  their  condition,  that  reduce  toil  to  a 
reasonable  length,  or  that  in  any  way  brighten  a  dreary  life 

*  Mr.  Pullman's  investments,  while  directly  tendinjr  to  the  amelioration 
of  the  conditions  of  lobor,  have  been  profitnble.  Over  $750,000  was  spent 
at  Pullman  before  a  house  was  erected,  yet  everything  pays  6  per  cent., 
even  the  gas,  which  is  furnished  for  70  cents  a  thousand  feet. 


TRUE  SOCIOLOGY.  127 

by  improving  the  home,  furnishing  cheerful  recreation  and 
awakening  an  appreciation  of  the  beautiful. 

There  is  abundant  evidence  at  hand  for  those  who  care  to 
seek  it,  proving  that  the  hirer  of  labor  is  a  direct  gainer  by 
the  education  of  his  employe,  and  that  money  invested  for 
such  a  purpose  yields  good  returns.  In  1862  Mr.  Chad  wick 
told  the  Statistical  Society  of  England  that  he  had  been  '*at 
much  pains  to  ascertain  from  employers  the  comparative 
efficiency  of  educated  and  uneducated  laborers,  and  that  all 
intelligent  witnesses  of  wide  experience  and  discretion  unani- 
mously agree  that  education,  even  in  its  present  rude  and  in 
many  respects  objectionable  condition,  is  highly  remunera- 
tive. Masters  who  have  been  at  the  expense  of  schools  on 
high  religious  and  social  grounds  concur  in  saying  that  suc- 
cess is  great  on  economical  grounds."  In  1841  Horace  Mann 
elicited,  by  means  of  a  circular  letter  of  inquiry  addressed  to 
the  largest  employers  of  labor  in  Massachusetts,  the  emphatic 
opinion  that  the  educated  operative  was  the  most  profitable, 
on  account  of  the  better  quality  of  his  productions,  and  that 
owners  of  manufacturing  property  had  "a  deep,  pecuniary 
interest*'  in  primary  instruction.  Similarly  Mr.  Scott  Rus- 
sell, in  his  work  on  **  Technical  Education,"  conclusively 
demonstrates  that  that  portion  of  national  wealth  dependent 
on  trade  is  largely  governed  by  the  knowledge  and  intelligence 
of  the  working  classes. 

The  duty  of  the  employer  to  educate  his  workers  need  not 
trench  on  the  province~otjthe  state!  State  education  even  in 
its  higher  technical  spheres  must  always  be  somewhat  dis- 
cursive, while  in  the  factory,  foundry,  or  machine  shop  it  can 
take  the  direction  of  those  special  branches  and  subdivisions 
of  industry  in  which  most  establishments  now  engage.  The 
system  of  apprenticeship  had  for  its  intent  this  very  thing. 
It  was  an  agreement  that  in  return  for  a  long  term  of  service 
the  master  would  teach  the  youth  all  that  he  knew  of  a  cer- 
tain handicraft,  and  his  pride  and  honor  were  involved  in 
developing  the  untrained  mental  and  bodily  faculties  of  the 
learner  to  a  skill  equal  to  his  own.    This  daily  contact  in  the 


sV 


128  HIGHER   EDUCATION   FOR   LABOR. 

workshop  with  a  community  of  objects,  ideas  and  interests 
ultimately  bound  the  two  in  a  strong  tie,  and  was  the  most 
commendable  feature  in  that  form  of  labor  which  the  factory 
system  supplanted.  JThe  apprenticeship  of  to-day,  where  it 
exists,  is  but  a  crude  survival  of  the  ancient  system,  because 
of  the  witlidrawal  of  the  master.  He  now  lives  in  a  different 
world  from  the  boy,  and  only  knows  him  as  one  of  so  many 
hands  on  the  pay-roll.  The  supervision  of  the  workshop  is 
left  to  foremen,  while  his  own  time  is  more  profitably  engaged 
in  other  ways.  *'  The  modern  apprentice  is  merely  a  hired 
boy,"*  says  a  late  writer,  "who,  while  making  himself  use- 
ful about  a  workshop,  learns  what  he  can  by  observation  and 
practice.  If  he  sees  the  interior  of  his  master's  house,  it  is 
to  do  some  work  in  no  way  connected  with  his  trade,  and 
wliich  may  not  increase  the  idea  of  the  dignity  of  labor  in 
the  minds  of  such  of  his  associates  as  are  employed  in  stores 
y.  and  offices."  The  new  order  of  things  seems  to  make  such  a 
divergence  unavoidable,  but  unless  we  are  to  depend  on  immi- 
gration for  our  supply  of  craftsmen  and  mechanics,  some- 
thing must  be  done  to  fill  the  void,  or  the  j^ractical  arts  will 
fall  far  below  the  standard  of  other  nations,  with  the  result 
of  an  industrial  loss  that  it  will  take  years  to  recover.      | 

Tlie  question  of  employment  for  boys  and  girls  is^so  be- 
coming a  pressing  one.  They  leave  school,  knowing  little 
that  will  gain  them  a  livelihood.  Every  avenue  of  clerical 
employment  is  crowded  with  applicants,  the  doors  of  the 
workshop  open  only  to  skilled  labor,  or  if  the  youth  succeeds 
in  entering,  jealousy  and  indifference  inside  keep  back  all  his 
opportunities.  There  is  provision  everywhere  for  professional 
training.  The  colleges  of  law,  medicine,  and  dentistry  stand 
with  open  portals;  theology  invites  to  its  universities;  the 
Normal  School  offers  inducements  to  the  aspiring  ceacher ; 
the  culture  of  the  intellect  is  provided  for  by  academies  of 
various  grades ;  but  any  place  where  instruction  in  manual 


*  Article  l>y  Riclmrd  T.  Auchmuty,  "  The  Need  of  Trade  Schools."— 
The  Century,  November,  1886. 


TRADE  SCHOOLS.  129 

craft  can  be  obtained  is  a  national  rarity,  even  though  the 
learner  is  willing  to  pay  liberally  for  his  tuition. 

The  remedy  for  this  comes  within  the  direct  province  of 
the  employer,  esi^ecially  in  large  establishments,  and  to  ignore 
it  is  to  neglect  a  duty.  fWRere  there  are  many  lads  employed 
work-schools  ought  to  supplement  the  rougher  practical  labor 
of  the  shop  by  comparison,  analysis,  deduction,  or  illustra- 
tion, within  the  bounds  of  a  subject  drawn  from  or  related  to. 
the  special  industry  conducted  there,  thus  combining  head-j 
knowledge  with  hand-knowledge."!  This  instruction  might  ber 
the  equivalent  for  a  certain  portion  of  wages,  and  its  general 
character  so  arranged  as  to  make  it  an  actual,  if  not  a  nomi- 
nal apprenticeship.  Should  trade  union  opposition  render 
such  a  method  impracticable,  there  is  the  recourse  of  trade 
schools  outside  the  works,  under  the  direction  of  the  em- 
ployer, a  course  of  training  in  which,  could  be  made  the  pre- 
requisite for  after  employment.  The  Pennsylvania  Railroad 
Company  has  partially  adopted  the  first  method  in  the  Altoona 
shops,  and  the  Cambria  Iron  and  Steel  Works*  at  Johnstown, 
in  the  same  state,  afford  another  example  of  what  can  be  done 
in  this  direction. 

JThe  arrogance  of  those  in  possession  of  trades  bars  the  way 
against  others  who  would  learn  them.  Men  who  are  con- 
stantly declaim.ing  about  their  own  wrongs,  inflict  a  greater 
one  on  the  boy  who  desires  to  become  their  associate  in 
labor.  They  deprive  him  of  the  inalienable  right  of  choosing 
his  own  employment,  of  fitting  himself  for  manhood,  for  use 
to  himself,  his  parents  and  the  state.  If  he  has  a  tendency  to 
evil  habits  they  adopt  the  very  course  that  will  confirm  them, 

*  Thi«j  compnny  has  provided  a  science  school,  rea<ling-ri>om  and 
library,  for  ihe  w^e  of  its  5000  workpeople.  Chemistry,  with  laboratory 
practice,  is  taught  in  the  ni^ht-school,  and  mechanics,  mechanical  draw- 
ing, mineralogy  (with  special  attention  to  iron  and  steel  and  its  processes 
of  manufacture),  the  economy  of  steam  and  fuel,  etc.,  offer  a  course  of 
both  practical  and  mental  study  that  has  resulted  in  many  benefits  to  the 
e-tabii-ihment  and  its  employes.  The  I'aUimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  has 
also  appropriated  S2S.000  lor  the  estaiilshment  of  a  technical  school 
for  engineers,  and  intends  to  expend  ^23,ooo  annually  for  its  maiute- 
nance. 

0 


130  SHORTER  HOURS  OF  LABOR. 

and  make  a  criminal  of  many  an  honest  lad  whose  evil  desires 
would  have  been  kept  in  check  by  congenial  industry.) 

In  an  exhaustive  report  on  ''  The  State  of  FftSons  and 
Child  Saving  Institutions  in  the  Civilized  World"  Mr.  E. 
G.  Wines  observes  that  '*  want  of  a  trade  is  a  permanent  and 
potent  occasion  of  crime.  Three-fourths  of  our  convicts 
make  no  pretence  to  having  ever  acquired  a  trade,  and  of 
the  remainder  more  than  a  moiety  have  done  so  only  in  a  very 
imperfect  degree."  jEvery  practical  step  that  is  taken  in 
teach ijig^  handicrafts  therefore  removes  temptation  and  pre- 
vents crime,  and  those  who  are  more  especially  their  brothers* 
keepers  by  reason  of  industrial  leadership,  as  employers,  or 
in  the  councils  of  labor,  cannot  render  a  greater  service  to 
the  community  than  by  enlarging  the  opportunities  of  youth 
and  giving  their  successors  and  our  successors  an  honest 
chance  to  earn  their  daily  brea^d^j 

There  is  another  way  in  which  the  helping  hand  ought  to 
be  more  liberally  extended  than  at  present,  and  that  is  in  re- 
gard to  the  hours  of  labor.  In  the  pig-iron  districts,  twelve- 
hour  shifts  succeed  each  other,  day  and  night,  without  Sunday 
or  holiday,  from  January  to  December.  In  many  industries, 
paper-mills,  flouring  mills,  and  gas-works  for  exarapl'e,  twelve 
hours  regularly  constitute  a  day's  work,  and  in  breweries  fif- 
teen hours  is  not  unusual.  Machinery  has  so  increased  pro- 
duction over  the  possibility  of  consumption,  that  it  is  nearly 
certain  the  world's  supply  could  be  completed  in  a  shorter 
working  day  than  at  present,  and  probably  this  will  be  one  of 
the  chief  measures  adopted  in  the  future  for  equalizing  human 
conditions.^  It  is  true  that  the  world  is  not  greatly  over- 
stocked with  secondary  commodities ;  but  it  is  for  the  reason 
that  no  one  thinks  of  storing  water  near  a  river,  and  there  is 

*  One  of  the  renderings  of  Paul's  advice  to  Titus  as  to  the  best  method 
of  organizing  the  church  in  Crete  is  that  the  people  are  to  learn  honest 
trades.     See  Titus  3  :  14. 

f  Under  any  circumstances  would  it  not  be  better,  as  was  asked  by  a 
participant  in  the  "  Industrial  Remuneration  Conference,"  that  ten  men 
should  work  six  hours  a  day,  and  all  be  employed,  than  that  six  men 
shnuUl  work  ten  hours  a  day  and  the  other  four  men  go  about  idle  ? 


SHORTER  HOURS  OF  LABOR.  181 

always  plenty  of  raw  material  available  for  the  manufacture 
of  any  particular  article  in  endless  quantity  should  the  demand 
arise.  The  immediate  effect  of  a  reduction  in  working  hours 
would  be  a  fall  in  wages,  coui)led  with  an  increase  of  ])rofus 
that  under  a  just  system  would  again  revert  to  the  worker.  It 
is  certain  that  the  change  from  the  old  methods  of  12  and  13 
hours  inflicted  no  injury  on  either  of  the  factors  in  production, 
or  on  the  consumer.*  Wages  are  higher  than  when  children 
of  9  to  15  worked  18  and  20  hours  at  a  stretch  in  the  Notting- 
ham lace  mills,  or  when  as  at  Paterson,  N.  J.,  the  regula- 
tions required  women  and  children  to  commence  their  tasks 
at  4.30  A.  M.,  or  when,  as  in  certain  Connecticut  factories, 
14  or  15  hours  labor  was  not  considered  an  unreasonable  ex- 
pectation.f 

Judging,  therefore,  by  direct  experience  and  analogy,  there 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  a  reduction  of  one-fifth  or  one- 
sixth  in  the  average  working  time  would  have  more  than  a 
passing  effect  on  the  decrease  of  earnings.  Nature  has  pro- 
mulgated no  fixed  law  saying,  "  so  many  hours  shalt  thou 
labor."  Once  men  did  without  a  Sabbath,  but  the  abstrac- 
tion of  one-seventh  of  the  year  from  toil  has  been  the  greatest 
blessing  ever  conferred  on  humanity.  Few  will  contend  that 
nations  would  be  richer  in  material  wealth  for  a  reversion,  and 
it  is  not  a  dangerous  approach  to  Utopia,  where  "  they  bestowe 
but  vi  houres  in  woorke,"  to  predict  that  the  coming  race  will 
find  its  hours  of  toil  much  shorter  than  now.  J     It  is  unques- 


*  "  Every  indication  points  us  to  the  belief  that  such  a  further  reduction 
in  hours  of  labor,  even  below  the  ei<jht  hour  limit,  is  not  only  ]^<)s<!fl)le, 
but  exceedingly  probable,  if  it  is  allowed  to  come  naturally,  not  artificially ; 
that  the  progress  of  art  and  science  is  constantly  tending,  when  it  is  un- 
checked, to  make  less  lal)or  necessary  for  man's  subsistence."  Article  on 
"  The  Eijjhi-hour  Working  Day,"  Century,  Dec,  1886. 

t  Quoted  by  Professor  Ely,  "  The  Labor  Movement  in  America," 
page  50. 

X  ♦♦  What  length  and  severity  of  labor  may  be  ultimately  found  neces- 
sary for  the  procuring  of  the  due  comforts  of  life,  I  do  not  know ;  neither 
what  degree  of  refinement  it  is  possible  to  unite  with  the  so-called  servile 
occupations  of  life;  but  this  I  know,  that  rigid  economy  of  lalxjr  will,  as 
it  is  understood,  assign  to  each  man  as  much  as  will  be  healthy  for  him, 
and  no  more." — John  Ktiskin, 


// 

132  SHORTER  HOURS  OF  LABOR. 

tionable  that  English  factory  operatives  do  more  work  now  in 
56  hours  than  they  did  formerly  in  70,  and  even  employers 
would  not  go  back  to  the  old  scale.  One  of  the  most  vigor- 
ous offshoots  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  empire  is  to  be  found  in 
New  South  Wales,  and  there  by  general  consent  8  hours  has 
for  a  long  time  constituted  a  day's  work  in  nearly  all  the 
trades.  Yet  with  the  exception  of  the  Pacific  states,  labor 
commands  higher  prices  than  in  almost  any  other  part  of  the 
world,  notwithstanding  that  the  number  of  skilled  workmen 
in  proportion  to  population  is  as  high  as  in  older  communities. 
Corporations  are  the  greatest  offenders  in  this  respect.  The 
long  hours  on  some  of  the  street-car  companies  and  railroads 
is  a  crying  shame ;  and  in  the  case  of  the  latter  it  is  notorious 
that  if  many  accidents  were  traced  to  their  origin,  the  true 
cause  would  be  found  in  overwork.  Long  runs  are  often  un- 
avoidable, but  they  should  be  followed  by  long  rests,  and  that 
is  Seldom  the  case. 

j  Another  class  of  offenders  are  small  store-keepers,  generally 
those  employing  two  or  three  assistants.  Their  gas-lights 
gleam  far  into  the  night,  they  defy  early  dosing  movements 
and  moral  pressure,  and  with  specious  argument  attempt  to 
prove  that  in  no  other  way  could  they  conduct  a  profitable 
business.  In  some  cities  there  is  as  much  need  of  legislative 
restriction  on  the  store-keeper,  as  there  once  was  on  the  fac- 
tories, and  this  subject  might  almost  be  placed  amongst  those 
removable  unfairnesses  previously  mentioned.  Public  opinion 
could  easily  make  it  unprofitable  to  be  covetous ;  but  it  is 
much  better  to  act  from  grace  than  from  force,  and  this  is  a 
matter  that  ought  to  be  readily  settled  between  employers  and 
:  their  clerks,  through  early  closing  associations,  without  the 
intervention  of  others. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  emphasize  the  importance  of  enabling 
the  laborer  to  save  easily.  Until  Congress  finds  time  to  pass 
a  postal  savings  law,  large  establishments  might  open  indi- 
vidual accounts  with  their  men  and  have  a  person  deputed  to 
receive  deposits  every  pay-day.  The  employer  could  afford 
to  pay  a  little  more  than  current  rates  of  interest  on  small 


ORGANIZED  CHARITY.  138 

sums,  from  policy,  as  it  would  in  a  measure  anchor  the  desir- 
able workman  to  the  firm,  encourage  him  in  economy  and 
have  the  indirect  effect  of  generally  enhancing  his  economic 
value  as  a  worker.  The  London  Times  requires  its  employes 
to  pay  a  certain  percentage  of  earnings  into  a  savings  bank 
and  also  to  join  a  sick-fund  society.  Both  are  compulsory, 
and  the  practical  effect  has  been  to  secure  a  provision  for  sick- 
ness and  old  age.  The  care  of  Mr.  Walter  for  his  work- 
people is  a  traditional  policy  handed  down  from  the  founders 
of  the  TimeSy  and  positions  in  the  mechanical  departments  of 
that  great  newspai)er  are  urgently  sought,  and  when  obtained, 
nearly  always  held  for  life. 

Is  it  not  possible  for  the  well-to-do  classes  in  our  large 
cities  to  organize  a  system  by  which  speedy  relief  could  be 
afforded  in  winter  to  the  many  willing  workers  who,  without 
fault  of  their  own,  are  compelled  to  idleness?  Nothing  is 
more  pitiable  than  to  see  those  who  by  reason  of  low  earn- 
ings are  most  dependent  on  constant  work  for  food  and  shel- 
ter reduced  to  the  extremity  of  semi-starvation  as  soon  as 
rigorous  weather  commences.  Each  of  these  men  represents 
three  or  four  other  persons,  women  and  children,  who  shiver 
and  famish  in  the  background.  There  is  charity  enough  in 
every  heart  to  give,  but  the  giving  is  alloyed  with  the  fear  of 
fostering  mendicancy,  and  if  that  were  removed,  no  magic 
words  oi  open  sesame  ^ov\f\  have  readier  response  than  appeal 
for  aid.  Another,  and  the  most  serious  difficulty  is  that  of 
finding  work  of  semi-utility  during  storm  and  frost ;  but  that 
cannot  be  considered  insurmountable  as  long  as  there  is  a 
pretext  for  employment  at  sufficient  wages  to  pay  for  food. 
Thi^Js  a  serious  problem  forprganized^charily  j]  yet  notwith- 
standing its  magnitude  it  is  one  that  should  not  be  shirked. 
The  man  who  has  to  go  without  breakfast  and  supper  for 
several  days  in  succession,  and  return  home  at  night  to  a  fire- 
less  hearth,  is  not  likely  to  entertain  a  legal  regard  for  the 
sanctity  of  property,  or  to  cherish  optimistic  opinions  about 
constituted  society,  or  indeed  do  anything  in  the  way  of 
active  thought  upon  these  subjects  except  to  wonder  where 


134  ORGANIZED   CHARITY. 

his  particular  share  of  the  general  good  is  to  be  found.  The 
tide  of  poverty  that  floods  our  cities  during  the  winter  season 
is  appalling  in  its  immensity,  and,  whether  by  prevention  or 
mitigation,  will  have  to  be  taken  in  hand  before  any  com- 
munity calling  itself  Christian  can  fairly  say  it  has  done  its 
duty.* 

That  property  has  not  been  altogether  unmindful  of  its 
trust  is  manifest  by  the  magnificent  charitable  endowments 
of  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain.  The  charitable 
revenue  of  the  United  Kingdom,  excluding  the  amount 
given  for  religious  purposes,  is  estimated  at  $40,000,000  per 
annum,  while  the  orphanages,  hospitals,  asylums,  and  charity 
schools  in  London  alone  show  an  expenditure  (1881)  of 
$12,650,000.  The  capitalized  fund  of  English  charitable 
endowments  increased  from  $213,000,000  in  1837  to  $256,- 
500,000  in  1876,  and  this  great  sum  represents  the  direct 
contribution  of  wealth  to  poverty  for  the  alleviation  of  sick- 
ness, accident,  and  death. f 

Within  the  short  space  of  twenty  years,  Mr.  John  Mac- 
donaldj  says  that  the  citizens  of  Birmingham  have  enriched 
and  adorned  their  town  with  parks,  gardens,  and  public  insti- 
tutions, scholarships  and  works  of  art  of  the  money  value  of 
$5,000,000,  and  it  is  sufficient  to  mention  the  names  of  Cor- 
nell, Peabody,  Slater,  Cooper,  and  Stanford  in  our  own  country 
to  bring  to  mind  their  princely  use  of  opportunities  for  good. 

Since  1800  the  number  of  hospitals  in  the  United  King- 
dom has  increased  from  51  to  496,  now  relieving  145,000 
sick  yearly.  This  growth  is  an  attestation  of  the  wider 
humanity  that  marks   this  century  from  all  preceding  ones, 

*  The  "  Friendly  Inn  "  of  Minneapolis  affords  a  hint  in  this  direction. 
Tickets  are  issued  at  the  nominal  sum  of  ten  cents  each,  which  the  public 
are  requested  to  buy  and  give  to  able-bodied  persons  asking  food  or  shel- 
ter. On  presentation  at  the  inn  the  holder  is  required  to  cut  a  certain 
amount  of  wood  into  stove  lengths  in  payment  for  a  wholesome  meal  and 
lodging.  A  warm  sitting-room  is  provided  for  those  who  have  done  their 
work,  together  with  baths  and  facilities  for  washing  clothes.  The  institu- 
tion— with  the  aid  of  the  tickets  sold — is  almost  self-supporting. 

f  The  figures  are  taken  from  Mulhall's  "Dictionary  of  Statistics." 

j  Nineteenth  Century,  August,  1886. 


GIFTS  TO  CHARITIES.  136 

especially  when  it  is  remembered  that  all  these  institutions 
are  supported  by  the  voluntary  contributions  of  the  people. 
Yet  such  a  perceptible  progress  in  merciful  duty  and  the 
great  gifts  of  modern  benefaction  must  not  blind  us  to  the 
fact  that  as  a  nation  England,  and  presumably  the  United 
States,  parts  with  only  the  merest  pittance  of  her  income  in 
the  service  of  charity.  About  two  dollars  and  a  half,  in  Eng- 
lish money  ten  shillings  and  sixpence,  represents  the  annual 
charitable  bequests  of  the  United  Kingdom  for  every  million 
sterling  of  its  earnings,*  or,  measuring  these  amounts  by  the 
national  assets,  only  four  pounds  out  of  every  one  thousand 
pounds  of  accumulated  wealth  is  apportioned  at  death  to 
beneficence.  The  Pharisee  who  gave  a  tithe  of  all  he  had 
was  accounted  no  better  for  the  giving,  and  death  bequests 
are  but  a  very  uncertain  criterion  of  a  Christian  spirit.  Still 
the  small  amount  bestowed,  as  compared  with  the  total  pos- 
sessed, is  too  painfully  suggestive  to  pass  unnoticed,  and  shows 
how  strong  a  hold  the  things  of  this  world  have  upon  the  heart,- 
though  the  days  of  their  use  will  be  for  others. 

There  are  many  people  who  honestly  doubt  the  efficacy  of 
legislation  in  promoting  social  reforms.  The  work  is  so  vast 
that  they  agree  with  Sir  Thomas  Rrassey  in  believing  that  "  it 
can  only  be  accomplished  by  the  self-help  and  self-sacrifice  of 
the  whole  natioir."  f  And  in  one  way  they  are  right,  for  it  is 
true  that  compulsory  morality,  or  hymanity,  or  the  enforce- 
ment of  any  of  the  social  obligations,  is  a  poor  substitute  for 
the  spontaneous  offering  of  sympathy  and  duty.  Legislation, 
however,  is  always  more  likely  to  lag  behind  than  travel  in 
advance  of  public  sentiment,  and  when  society  has  decided 
by  a  ripened  opinion  that  any  reform  is  necessary,  the  law  is 
only  a  register  of  the  decree.  Yet  we  may  place  upon  our 
statute  books  laws  aiming  at  the  solution  of  every  problem 
that  troubles  labor,  every  difficulty  that  confronts  production, 
every  question  that  agitates  society,  and  when  these  are  dis- 


*  Mulhall's  "  Dictionary  of  Statistics." 
■j-  "  Work  and  Wages,"  page  281. 


136  MUTUAL  AID   NEEDED. 

posed  of,  new  ones,  or  old  ones  in  new  shapes,  will  still  arise, 
alike  requiring  experience,  wisdom  and  God's  guidance  for 
their  removal.  The  finality  of  a  problem  in  Euclid,  "  Quod 
erat  demonstrandum,"  was  never  intended  to  apply  to  man's 
life  here.  It  is  an  inscription  for  the  haven  of  rest,  for  the 
new  earth,  when  all  things  have  been  conquered — for  the 
victory,  but  not  for  the  conflict.  F  So  whether  the  state  limits 
or  enlarges  its  functions  there  will  always  be  need  for  every 
one  to  help  his  neighbor,  and  every  one  to  say  to  his  brother, 
**  Be  of  good  cheex.^; 

In  the  flood  of  progress  thousands  will  be  caught  in  the 
whirling  eddies  or  swept  away  in  the  rush;  in  the  tempo- 
rary ebb  other  thousands  will  be  left  stranded  and  helpless. 
We  may  spiritualize  mortality  and  perfect  human  associations 
until  the  conditions  of  social  existence  are  as  superior  to  those 
we  now  know  as  their^  present  form  is  to  that  of  the  cave- 
dwellers*  period.  /  Yet  the  poor  will  always  be  with  us ;  sor- 
row will  always  come  to  the  heart ;  the  human  passions  will 
still  assert  their  sway ;  the  weak  will  stumble ;  the  headstrong 
fall,  and  all  at  some  time  succumb  to  temptation.  Our  affec- 
tion for  each  other,  manifest  it  how  we  may,  will  be  but  a 
feeble  reflection  of  the  unsurpassable  love  of  the  universal 
Father/  our  greatest  bounty  to  our  fellow-travellers  only  a 
sharing  with  them  of  the  superabundance  of  his  store-house, 
placed  in  our  hands  to  distribute,  not  to  retain.  "  The  earth 
is  the  Lord's,  and  the  fulness  thereof;  the  world,  and  they 
that  dwell  therein."  Our  task  here  is  to  conquer;  and  pro- 
gress and  restlessness  are  convertible  terms.  One  by  one  we 
remove  the  obstructions,  one  by  one  we  slip  away  from  our 
burdens  and  the  ceaseless  advance  pushes  on,  ever  finding 
new  hindrances  ahead  and  new  hands  to  remove  them.  And 
thus  will  it  be  until  he  makes  all  things  new  and  fits  the 
world  for  his  coming.  •  Nevertheless,  in  all  the  times  and 
seasons  of  our  journey^^*  This  is  a  faithful  saying,  and  these 
things  I  will  that  thou  affirm  constantly,  that  they  that  have 
believed  in  God  might  be  careful  to  maintain  good  works. 
These  things  are  good  and  profitable  unto  men,*^ 


CHAPTER  VII. 

VALUE    FOR   VALUE. 

"Give,  and  it  shall  be  given  unto  you;  good  measure,  pressed  down, 
and  shaken  togethtrr,  and  runninij  over,  shall  men  give  into  your  bosom. 
For  with  the  same  measure  ihat  ye  mete  v\  itiial,  it  shall  be  measured  to 
you  again." — Luke  6  :  38. 

*'  The  one  exchange  above  all  exchanges  on  which  the  well-being  and 
progress  of  society  (lepend  is  that  between  those  who  purchase  labor  and 
those  who  sell  it :  between  capitalists  and  laborers.  Up  to  ihe  present  time, 
the  relative  sagacity  of  the  two  classes,  and  the  circumstances  under 
which  they  have  entered  upon  this  trade,  have  favored  capitalists."— yf>*« 
B  a  scorn. 

/There  has  never  l>een  a  question  that  concerned  such  vast 
numbers  of  people  as  the  simple  equities  involved  when  one 
man  exchanges  the  use  of  his  skill  or  labor  in  return  for  some 
other  consideration)  Other  questions  pass  away  with  their 
generation  or  are  localized  ;  but  this  apparently  easy  problem 
of  value  for  value  will  not  down,  and  from  time  beyond  reck- 
oning has  cast  a  gloom  on  our  feastings  and  stalked  with  un- 
bidden presence  at  inopportune  seasons  before  the  feasters. 

It  must  have  presented  itself,  too,  very  early  in  the  world's 
history.  The  first  savage  who  agreed  to  assist  in  making  a 
canoe,  on  condition  of  having  its  occasional  use,  and  the  first 
Indian  who  bargained  with  another  to  chisel  an  arrow-head 
as  an  equivalent  for  part  of  the  game  the  weapon  might  bring 
down,  must  have  found  themselves  confronted  with  the  diffi- 
culty of  determining  how  often  the  use  of  the  canoe  and  how 
much  of  the  game  would  be  a  fair  repayment  to  them  for  their 
work.  It  is  natural  to  suppose  that  the  actual  owner  of  the 
canoe  and  the  hunter  would  be  less  liberal  in  their  valuation 
of  the  services  than  those  who  were  rendering  them  ;  and  if  a 
dispute  arose  it  would  in  simple  form  be  analogous  to  the  labor 

(137) 


\ 

138  EARLY   SPOLIATION   OF   LABOR. 

problem  of  to-day.  If,  further,  the  canoe-biiilder  and  the 
arrow-maker  from  one  of  a  thousand  possible  circumstances 
were  without  food  and  dare  not  insist  on  all  they  thought  was 
just,  lest  they  should  have  to  go  supperless  to  their  couch  of 
leaves,  the  analogy  becomes  still  more  perfect. 

From  the  simplicity  of  such  life,  through  every  stage  of 
evolution  to  the  complexity  of  modern  society,  the  labor 
question  has  been  until  recently  not  only  the  most  constant, 
but  the  most  readily  solved  problem  of  ages ;  truly,  not  in 
accord  with  our  ideas  of  moral  arithmetic  or  social  mathema- 
tics, but  quick,  stern,  unanswerable,  and  effective.  For  what 
dispute  could  the  captive  make  with  the  keeper,  or  how  could 
the  victim  argue  with  a  drawn  sword  ?  It  was  impossible  to 
determine  the  equation  of  an  unrecognized  quantity  when 
the  power  of  the  sword  meant  absolute  authority ;  all  that 
could  be  taken  ;  land,  cattle,  goods,  men's  lives,  or  the  use 
of  their  lives  to  the  very  end.  Two  of  equal  weight  will 
balance  when  the  scales  are  rightly  held,  but  with  the  mailed 
hand  pressing  down  one  side  there  is  no  equipoise. 

So  the  problem  was  solved  by  making  labor  the  spoil  of 
war,  and  very  prettily  was  the  quotient  brought  out  minus , 
proving  labor's  offspring  also  debtor,  for  the  merciful  allevia- 
tion that  had  reduced  the  parent's  penalty  for  capture  from 
death  to  bondage  ;  and  thus,  though  nations  rose  and  fell,  and 
oppressor  conquered  oppressor,  the  answer  was  always  the  same, 
until  from  reiteration  both  sides  accepted  it  as  the  only  true 
one ;  the  natural  dividend  of  weakness  when  power  was  the 
divisor. 

Slowly  that  night  of  history  passes  away.  Egypt,  Persia, 
Phcenicia,  and  Greece  fill  its  hours  and  there  is  no  token  of 
the  dawn.  Rome  rises,  and  with  giant  strength  possesses  all 
the  world  her  mighty  hands  can  grasp.  She  rivets  her  shackles 
on  Europe  and  holds  in  firm  clutch  the  borders.of  Asia  and 
Africa,  and  yet  there  is  no  sign  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness, 
lislt  appointed  in  his  eternal  purpose  that  it  shall  be  forever 
so,  and  is  the  idea  of  brotherhood  a  fallacy,  the  exalted  con- 
ception of  a  dreamer?     Be  patient,  be  trustful,  O  questioner. 


CHRISTIAN  SOLUTION.  139 

The  Spirit  of  God  that  moved  on  chaos  fashioned  a  perfect 
world,  and  from  the  chaos  of  evil  there  shall  come  the  frui- 
tion of  his  will.  He  has  fitted  the  earth  fcr  man,  and  will 
fit  man  for  his  earth.  It  has  been  promised,  and  he  will 
fulfil. 

The  coming  of  Christ  gave  to  the  labor  question  a  new 
aspect.  Men  saw  that  the  old  answer  did  not  harmonize  with 
his  precepts;  that  the  blood-stained,  tear-wet  one,  to  which 
they  were  so  long  accustomed  was  in  conflict  with  their  aspi- 
rations and  possibilities;  and  so  guided  by  his  life  they  pon- 
dered again  and  studied  it  with  yet  closer  attention.) 

Standing  in  the  morning  glory  of  our  own  freedom  we  can 
look  back  and  as  Christianity  silently  penetrates  from  strata 
to  strata,  see  their  darkness  fading  before  the  dawn  of  knowl- 
edge. Slowly  the  vast  mass  is  tinged  with  light,  and  its  set- 
tled form  changes  to  the  unrest  of  progress.  Century  after 
century  are  reeled  from  the  roll  of  God's  design  for  his  earth 
and  man,  and  the  increasing  ligln  dissolves  the  amphitheatre, 
modifies  slavery  into  serfdom,  adds  numbers  and  strength  to 
the  unbonded,  and  ever  widens  the  horizon  of  their  desires. 
Now  the  gloom  disperses : 

Out  of  the  sliadows  of  night 
The  world  rolls  into  lijjlU; 
.    It  is  daybreak  everywhere. 

Those  who  are  free  from  the  shackles  gather  in  burgher 
communities,  and  nourish  their  new  found  rights  with  quick- 
ened courage.  But  the  mists  still  surround  them,  and  many 
a  fight  must  yet  be  made  for  liberty  before  its  narrow  boun- 
daries are  enlarged.  Sometimes  triumphant,  sometimescrushed, 
but,  ever  gaining  a  little,  they  hold  on  strenuously,  until  after 
unceasing  conflict,  the  last  vestige  of  night  disappears,  and  as 
with  one  great  rush  the  balance  of  society  is  changed,  the  first 
demand  of  the  victors  is  that  the  problem  be  answered  anew 
in  the  wisdom  of  his  teachings. 

Thus  the  question  has  grown  and  matured  since  the  days  of 
Pharaoh,  until  it  is  now  the  most  momentous  one  that  this  or 


140  CHRISTIAN   SOLUTION. 

many  succeeding  generations  will  have  to  meet.  It  affects  all 
classes  throughout  civilization,  touches  capital  and  labor  in 
every  workshop  in  Ciiristendom,  in  every  ship  that  sails  the 
seas,  wherever  there  is  barter,  trade,  or  exchange ;  wherever 
one  man  pays,  and  another  receives  pay  for  his  services.  Its 
dim  intangibility  has  materialized  into  ominous  form ;  the 
earth  is  girdled  with  its  magnitude  and  a  gigantic  shadow  falls 
on  every  land.  The  contemptuous  silence  of  ancient  and 
mediaeval  Europe  has  been  succeeded  by  a  universal  desire  to 
avert  further  wrong.  And  now,  wealth,  learning,  statesman- 
ship, law,  and  religion,  as  well  as  labor,  are  unceasingly  seek- 
ing for  a  settlement  that  will  be  in  accordance  with  the  divine 
law,  with  the  greatest  good  to  all ;  and  that  will  give  ])ros- 
perity  to  society,  justice  to  the  individual,  and  stability  to 
the  state. 

The  supposititious  arrow-maker  asking  for  a  portion  of  the 
game  that  his  fellow-savage  might  slay  is  the  problem  in  the 
germ.  Without  his  skill  in  making  the  flint  the  hunter's  craft 
would  have  been  useless,  and  similarly  but  for  the  latter's 
strength  and  fleetness,  the  other,  wanting  these  qualities, 
would  have  had  his  hunger  unappeased.  What  was  the  fair 
proportion  due  to  each,  and  if  a  heavy  spoil  rewarded  the 
chase  should  the  hunter  have  shown  corresponding  liberality 
in  the  division  ?  Each  desires  value  for  value ;  but  how  is  that 
value  to  be  determined  ? 

In  like  manner  when  the  workman  says,  "  I  want  a  fair 
share  of  the  additional  worth  my  labor  has  given  to  your  ma- 
terial j  "  and  the  employer  replies,  "  Considering  the  outlay 
necessary,  the  risks  I  take,  the  skill  I  bring  to  bear  in  the  con- 
duct of  my  business,  and  the  many  who  are  willing  to  work 
for  what  I  pay,  you  are  getting  your  due  proportion,"  it  is  the 
old  problem  in  a  new  dress.  The  arrow-maker  has  changed 
into  the  artisan ;  and  the  hunter  (after  his  successful  expedi- 
tion) into  the  capitalist,  but  the  problem  in  division  is  almost 
the  same  as  before. 

Nor  is  the  intrinsic  justice  of  the  question  affected   by 


LABOU   AND   ADDED   VALUES.  141 

material  or  numbers.  It  docs  not  matter  whether  the  article 
to  wliich  labor  gives  additional  value  is  a  ton  of  coal  yet  hid- 
den in  the  mine,  an  acre  of  land  ripe  for  the  header,  a  skein 
of  yarn  on  the  loom,  or  a  bar  of  iron  ready  for  transportation 
by  the  machinery  of  a  locomotive  from  Pennsylvania  to  Cali- 
fornia. Neither  does  it  make  any  difference  whether  the 
capitalist  is  an  individual  employer,  or  a  thousand  share- 
holders each  owning  a  part  in  one  great  concern.  These 
merely  change  the  figures,  not  the  factors,  whether  the  prob- 
lem be  solved  by  right  or  wrong. 

But  it  is  on  another  question  of  numbers  that  the  great 
divergence  between  the  moral  and  commercial  law  occurs, 
('apital  says  that  it  is  essentially  a  numerical  problem,  or  as 
the  formula  runs,  one  of  supply  and  demand;  so  many  buyers 
and  so  many  sellers  of  labor,  and  as  the  mass  varies,  so  varies 
the  recompense.  In  accordance  with  this  theory,  scattered 
through  the  books  of  nearly  every  social  economist  can  be 
found  the  parable  of  two  masters  seeking  the  services  of  one 
man,  or  two  men  seeking  service  with  one  master.  In  the 
first  case  the  master  is  bidding  for  the  laborer  by  increase  of 
wages;  in  the  other  the  men  are  bidding  for  work  by  reduc- 
tion of  wages,  and  we  are  told  that  this  is  a  fair  statement 
of  the  elements  which  govern  the  labor  problem.  Unfor- 
tunately the  illustration  does  truly  represent  the  competitive 
condition  of  modern  production,  and  is  a  fair  statement  of 
the  antagonistic  position  labor  and  capital  generally  occupy 
towards  each  other.  When  the  former  has  the  advantage  it 
wants  the  largest  share  of  profit  to  be  had  for  the  smallest 
return ;  and  when  the  latter,  the  largest  amount  of  labor  for 
the  smallest  pay.  Thus  selfishness  begets  its  harrying  brood, 
and  its  ill-favored  progeny,  grown  up,  vex  and  make  discord, 
incite  riots,  strikes  and  lockouts,  and  foment  war  between 
those  who  should  be  friends. 

Yet  this  supposed  elucidation  does  not  contain  the  ethics 
of  the  dispute,  and  unless  a  settlement  can  be  made  on  the 
basis  of  equity,  all  search  for  any  other  solution  is  worthless. 
By  the  rule  of  justice,  an  older  one  than  competitive  law,  and 


142  UNFAIR   DIVISION   OF   PROFITS. 

destined  to  survive  it,  the  service  of  the  laborer,  whether  he 
is  sought  by  one,  two,  or  a  dozen  masters,  cannot  rise  in 
value  above  his  every-day  efficiency,  and  by  that  .  measure 
should  he  demand  his  wage.  By  the  same  rule  he  cannot 
sink  beneath  it,  and  if  two  hundred  are  seeking  to  exchange 
their  toil  for  money,  where  only  two  are  needed,  those  se- 
lected are  entitled  to  fair  pay  as  gauged  by  their  normal 
ability.  In  either  case  the  workman  should  demand  and 
receive  fair  earnings,  neither  more  nor  less ;  or,  to  define 
that  term  with  exactness,  a  just  share  of  the  additional  value 
given  to  an  article  by  the  labor  he  expends  upon  it. 

This  is  a  very  old  law.  Its  inception  can  be  found  in  the 
deliverance  from  Sinai,  '*And  if  thou  sell  aught  unto  thy 
neighbor,  or  buyest  aught  of  thy  neighbor's  liand,  ye  shall  not 
oppress  one  another."  Its  fulness  is  in  the  saying  of  Christ, 
*'  Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye 
even  so  to  them ;  "  and  its  confirmation  is  of  Paul,  that  ''  no 
man  go  beyond  and  defraud  his  brother  in  any  matter,"  and 
thougli  a  law  so  long  revealed,  it  has  been  hidden  from  men's 
hearts  until  very  recently. 

Labor  therefore  should  be  paid  in  proportion  to  the  value  of 
its  work,  and  true  wages  would  be  those  that  were  most  nearly 
proportionate  to  the  work  done,  or  as  Mr.  Bigelow  epitomizes 
it,  "  Equitable  distribution  consists  not  in  an  equal  pro  rata 
division  of  the  produce  of  labor  and  capital,  but  in  allotting 
to  all  a  share  proportionate  to  the  degree  in  which  they  have 
respectively  aided  production,  directly  or  indirectly."*  By 
this  just  moral  and  economic  law  wages  are  an  exchange  of 
money  for  its  supposed  equivalent  in  labor,  and  the  value  of 
tliat  equivalent  is  determined  by  the  selling  price  of  the  pro- 
duct, less  cost  of  material,  administrative  expenses  (including 
the  directive  capacity),  and  interest  on  capital.  If  any  residue 
remains  after  the  deduction  of  these  charges,  under  the  con- 
ditions of  ordinary  competition,  and  it  is  appropriated  by 
capital,  labor  is  not  getting  its  fair  proportion,  and  the  deter- 

*  Atlantic  Monthly,  October,  1878,  page  480. 


RICH   GROW   RICHER.  143 

mination  and  distribution  of  that  residue  involves  all  the 
equities. 

How  large  this  remainder  is  can  be  seen  by  the.increase  of 

wealth.  Mulliall  says  that  in  iSoo  the  income  of  the  United 
Kingdom  was  $1,250,000,000,  wliile  in  1883  it  was  $6,335,- 
000,000.*  From  1 84 1  to  1881  the  population  of  England 
and  Wales  rose  60  per  cent.,  but  the  number  of  incomes 
between  $2500  and  525,000  more  than  doubled  ;  those  from 
$25,000  to  $50,000  trebled  ;  those  above  $50,000  and  under 
$250,000  quadrui)led,  and  the  number  with  incomes  above 
tiiis  last  sum  increased  eightfold. f  In  1800,  36,000  families 
of  the  gentry  had  an  income  of  $140,000,000;  in  1883, 
222,000  families  of  the  same  class  were  in  receipt  of  $1,665, - 
000,000,  sliowing  an  increase  of  five  and  one-sixth  times  in 
ownership  and  of  nearly  eleven  times  in  wealth.  During  the 
same  period  the  working  families  about  quadrupled,  while 
their  earnings  were  multiplied  only  five  and  three-fourths. | 

The  attainable  statistics  of  the  United  States  relate  only  to 
gross  increase  in  property  valuation,  and  any  attempt  to  ap- 
l^roximate  its  divisions  would  be  guess-work.  From  1S60  to 
1S80  poi)ulation  has  increased  about  59  per  cent.,  but  wealth 
about  170  i)cr  cent.,  and  notwithstanding  the  progress  of  the 
working  classes,  it  is  evident  that  the  pace  of  wealth  has  been 
much  faster  than  theirs.§  In  England  222,000  families  own 
between  three-fourths  and  four-fifths  *' of  the  total  realized 
wealth  of  the  country,"  and  it  is  not  long  since  one  uian  was 
able  to  show  to  his  friends  about  5^^  of  the  entire  property 
estimate  of  the  United  States,  and  the  wealth  of  another, 
accumulated  in  three  generations,  is  believed  to  be  double 


*  "  Dictionary  of  .Statistics,"  page  245. 

f  "  E>says  on  Finance,"  by  Robert  (jiHen.     London,  1886. 

J  Mulhall's  "Dictionary  of  Statistics,"  page  246. 

I  The  Loudon  Economist  of  November  6,  1886,  says  that  within  the 
last  ten  years  Great  Britain  has  saved  and  invested  a  thousand  millions 
sterling,  and  in  authenticating  this  The  Spectator  is  able  to  trace  invest* 
ments  amounting  to  ;^ 938,000,000.  Professor  Leone  Levi  computes 
that  from  1866  to  1886  the  wealth  of  the  United  Kingdom  increased 
^  180,000,000  j)cr  annum,  or  $2,500,000  j)er  diem. 


144  RICH   GROW   RICHER. 

that  enormous  fraction.  Nothing  points  to  the  statement  so 
readily  accepted  by  many  that  **  the  poor  are  getting  poorer 
and  the  rich  richer,"  though  everything  does  show  that  the 
rich  are  outstripping  the  poor,  and  have  gained  greatly  on 
them  during  the  present  industrial  epoch. 

That  they  have  done  so  can  only  arise  from  three  causes — 
eitlier  they  have  profited  very  largely  from  the  increased 
value  of  lands,  or  from  the  iniquitous  system  of  stock-jobbing 
which  yearly  sweeps  into  the  hands  of  a  few  the  earnings  of 
foolish  thousands,  or  they  have  had  a  larger  share  of  profits 
than  was  justly  their  due. 

The  unearned  increment  of  land,  or  of  any  other  property, 
is  a  factor  that  has  no  place  in  a  discussion  on  profits.  That 
is  the  natural  result  of  growth  in  population,  and  as  private 
property  in  land  is  permissible  by  universal  law,  any  increase 
in  value  must  of  right  belong  to  the  owner.  Frequently 
this  increment  arises  from  things  that  are  beyond  ordinary 
prevision  ;  as  the  proximity  of  new  railroad  lines,  the  dis- 
covery of  minerals,  the  extension  of  commercial  facilities; 
or,  as  in  the  extreme  instance  of  San  Francisco,  the  finding 
of  the  precious  metals.  Within  less  than  forty  years,  acres 
of  the  sandhills  on  which  that  city  stands  could  have  been 
bought  for  a  few  dollars,  while  now  land  on  its  principal 
streets  often  commands  ;^2,ooo  per  front  foot. 

Similarly  the  money  made  by  stock-watering  pools,  market 
manipulation  and  other  forms  of  legalized  dishonesty,  cannot 
be  taken  into  consideration.  It  is  not  creative  wealth,  but 
a  civilized  fashion  of  freebooting,  much  more  harmful  than 
the  occupation  assigned  by  tradition  to  the  feudal  barons  of 
the  Rhine,  yet  wrongfully  permitted  on  the  assumption  that 
it  plays  a  necessary  part  in  the  machinery  of  exchange. 

Restricting  the  inquiry  then  to  the  third  cause — produc- 
tional  increase — it  will  be  admitted  a  prioii  that  ethically 
profits  belong  to  the  capital  invested  and  the  labor  employed, 
and  not  to  capital  alone,  and  that  the  one  without  the  other 
is  powerless.  Capital  may  be  compared  to  the  stored  energy 
in  a  lump  of  coal,  labor  to  the  water  in  the  boiler.     When 


COMMON    INTERESTS.  145 

the  coal  dissipates  its  heat  in  the  furnace  there  must  be  water 
to  receive  it  or  the  i)iston  will  not  move.  If  the  two  co- 
operate in  conformity  with  mechanical  laws,  the  machine, 
throbbing  with  steam-life,  will  accomplish  all  its  maker 
intended.  Each  has  contributed  its  force  in  the  desired 
manner,  and  the  resultant  power  they  have  harnessed  is  the 
product  of  both. 

Ca[)ital  and  labor  have  therefore  a  common  interest  in 
using  the  results  of  their  combination  with  the  greatest  effi- 
ciency;  that  is,  in  obtaining  the  largest  legitimate  gain  from 
their  union,  and  on  this  ground  alone,  if  just  principles  pre- 
vailed, there  should  be  no  antagonism  between  the  two. 
Each  ought  to  do  its  utmost  to  increase  the  joint  product, 
because  each  is  interested  in  the  distribution  of  the  proceeds, 
and  harmonious  efforts  achieve  a  maximum  of  profit  while 
dispute  reduces  it  to  nothing. 

Of  course  all  this  desirable  conjunction  is  hypothetical. 
If  just  principles  prevailed — but  they  do  not  and  cannot  un- 
der the  present  system  of  working — the  employer,  with  all 
the  risk^  takes  all  the  profit,  minus  as  little  as  he  can  pay 
his  workmen  ;  and  as  the  general  average  of  profits  more  than 
covers  losses,  the  net  returns  swell  the  wealth  of  capital, 
while  the  co-ordinate  in  production  has  to  be  content  with 
what  it  can  get  in  the  shape  of  fixed  wages.  Hence  it  is  that 
the  rich  grow  richer.  The  division  is  unfairly  made.  Its 
basis  is  wrong,  and  until  that  is  changed  systematic  remedy  is 
an  impossibility.  As  Mr.  Mill  wrote  in  his  "  Chapters  on 
Socialism,"  "  The  very  idea  of  distributive  justice,  or  of  any 
proi)ortionality  between  success  and  merit,  or  between  suc- 
cess and  exertion,  is  in  the  present  state  of  society  so  chi- 
merical as  to  be  relegated  to  the  region  of  romance,"  *  and 
unless  we  can  find  some  method  by  which  that  **  propor- 
tionality "  is  maintained,  in  the  **  region  of  romance"  must 
it  remain. 

The  root  of  the  difficulty  is  that  labor  has  been  made  a 

*  FortnigJuly  RoficWf  February,  1879,  page  226. 
10 


146  LABOR   NOT   A    COMMODITY. 

commodity,  as  the  laborer  himself  was,  in  times  not  far  re- 
moved. The  abstract  has  been  substituted  for  the  concrete, 
but  that  is  bought  and  sold  like  any  other  material  at  market 
rates.  The  quotations  'Mabor  is  dear,"  "labor  is  cheap," 
are  applied  with  exactly  the  same  meaning,  and  just  as  care- 
lessly as  if  they  referred  to  the  rise  or  fall  in  price  of  steel 
rails.  So  long  therefore  as  it  continues  to  be  a  merchantable 
article,  the  employer  will  have  an  apparent  interest  in  buying 
it  as  cheaply  as  cotton,  pig-iron,  or  any  other  raw  merchan- 
dise necessary  to  the  completion  of  his  manufactured  pro- 
duct ;  and  the  cheaper  he  can  buy,  with  a  due  regard  to  its 
economic  value,  the  greater  will  be  his  apparent  immediate 
profit. 

One  result  of  this,  as  Mr.  Thorold  Rogers  points  out  in  his 
elaborate  history  of  English  labor,  is  that  "in  those  callings 
where  the  labor  of  the  employed  is  worst  paid  the  profits  of 
employers  are  abnormally  high,  as  in  the  case,  for  example, 
of  ready-made  clothes,''*  an  illustration  that  is  paralleled 
by  seamstresses  everywhere. f  i  "  The  Song  of  the  Shirt  "  has 
not  been  hushed  by  the  sewing  machine,  and  never  will  be 
as  long  as  the  hands  that  adjust  the  cloth  and  the  eyes  that 
follow  the  deft  stitch  are  only  a  *' commodity "  in  liberal 
supply.  Encasements  of  human  souls  will  continue  to  make 
shirts  at  eighty-five  cents  a  dozen  and  sew  their  own  lives 
into  "seam  and  gusset  and  band"  until  tired  nature  re- 
fuses the  strain  and  the  only  choice  is  physical  or  moral 
death.  These  things  are  concomitants  of  the  principle, 
and  there  cannot  be  change  or  redress  until  the  princii)le  is 
reformed  by  treating  labor  as  something  more  than  mer- 
chandise. ^ 

It  is  a  curious  anomaly  that  while  labor  is  thus  considered 


*  "Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages,"  by  James  E.  Thorold  Rogers, 
pnge  571. 

f  "  No  one  believes  that  if  the  London  seanistres<^es,  tailors  and  match- 
box makers  received  double  the  wages  which  they  do  at  present  there 
■would  be  an  appreciable  difference  in  the  price  of  the  products  sold." — • 
Ibid.,  page  572. 


women's  earnings.  147 

an  *' article,"  and  as  such  should  be  subject  to  the  full  rights 
of  ownership,  men  who  would  think  it  a  crime  to  take  the 
smallest  thing  belonging  to  another  do  not  hesitate  to  steal 
and  filch  this.  The  expression  is  a  strong  one,  yet  under- 
payment is  virtually  theft.  Thousands  of  poor  girls,  whose 
only  capital  is  their  labor,  and  whose  weakness,  dependency, 
and  honorable  striving  for  self-support  should  commend  them 
above  all  others  to  the  charity  of  men,  are  robbed  of  their 
capital  every  week  in  every  city  of  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain.*  Employers  whose  commercial  probity  is 
above  reproach  see  nothing  wrong  in  taking  advantage  of 
the  competition  of  women  for  dry  bread,  to  reduce  earnings 
below  a  living  minimum.  They  dare  not  do  it  with  laboring 
men,  because  it  would  provoke  denunciation,  riot  and  com- 
bination. Women  and  girls  suffer  uncomplainingly,  resort  to 
no  means  that  will  make  their  grievances  known,  and  have 
not  yet  discovered  the  art  of  resistance  by  union,  so  they  are 
plundered  of  their  labor  without  pity  and  redress. 

The  law  under  which  these  unfairnesses  are  perpetrated  is 
the  accepted  policy  of  the  commercial  world,  fortified  by 
custom,  and  the  dicta  of  many  standard  writers.  Thus  Pro- 
fessor Perry  says,  ''In  the  whole  field  of  exchange  the  just 
and  comprehensive  rule  always  will  be,  that  when  men  ex- 
change services  with  each  other,  each  party  is  bound  to  look 
out  for  his  own  interest,  to  know  the  market  value  of  his  own 
service,  and  to  obtain  the  best  terms  for  himself  which  he  can 
make.  Capital  does  this  for  itself,  and  laborers  ought  to  do 
this  for  themselves,  and  if  they  are  persistently  cheated  in 
the  exchange,  they  have  nobody  to  biame  but  themselves." 

Professor  Walker,  not  in  justification,  but  as  an  admission, 
writes  that  wage-laborers  aref  "unable  to  stand  out  against 
their  employers  and  make  terms  for  their  services,  or  to  seek 
a  better  market  for  their  labor  in  another  town  or  city,  but 
must  accept  the  first  offer  of  employment,  however  meagre 


*  See  Mrs.  Helen  Campbell's  "  Prisoners  of  Poverty." 

f  "Ihe  Wage  Question,"  by  Francis  A.  Walker,  page  297, 


148  ADVANTAGE   OF   CAriTAL. 

the  compensation."  Mr.  Jervis  in  his  work  on  "The  Ques- 
tion of  Labor  and  Capital"  sums  up  as  a  deduction  of  the 
views  of  the  best  known  writers  on  industrial  economy  that 
the  union  of  capital  and  labor  involves  a  competition,  and 
that  capitalists  (with  many  exceptions)  take  the  advantage  of 
their  position  to  **  drive  the  closest  bargain  with  the  laborer 
that  circumstances  may  permit."  On  another  page  the  same 
writer  adds  as  his  own  opinion  that  the  worth  of  labor  is  pre- 
cisely what  the  market  will  command,  and  ''whatever  senti- 
mentalists may  urge,  there  is  no  escape  from  this  position." 

If  there  is  sentimentality  in  asking  that  the  co-operative 
power  in  production  should  have  its  full  sliare  of  the  pro- 
ducts, the  implied  reproach  must  attach  to  all  other  dealings 
that  are  conducted  with  equity,  and  especially  to  those  in 
which  strength  refrains  from  taking  advantage  of  weakness. 
It  may  be  excessive  sensibility  to  say  that  the  world's  indus- 
trial system  is  not  based  on  Christian  morality,  yet  if  the 
facts  show  that  such  is  the  case,  it  is  much  better  to  acknowl- 
edge them  and  try  to  reform  our  methods,  than  to  continue 
on  the  same  course  because  we  have  followed  it  so  long.  The 
departure  v/ill  at  least  lead  us  on  the  line  of  justice. 

The  admission,  however,  is  almost  general  that  the  wage 
system  as  at  present  conducted  does  not  provide  for  the  most 
equitable  distribution  of  proceeds,*  but  many  maintain  that 
it  is  the  only  practical  one.  Leaving  this  for  the  moment 
aside  and  accepting  the  first  portion  of  the  proposition  as 
tentative,  one  of  two  things  follows:  either  the  method  of 
exchange  between  employer  and  employed  must  remain  as  it 
now  is,  and  society  can  make  no  further  advance  in   this 

*  "  There  is  not  a  figure  or  fact  to  show  that  the  lower  or  middle  classes 
are  receiving  their  fair  share  of  the  advantages  afforded  by  the  new  inthis- 
trial  forces.  The  entire  drift  of  the  facts  and  figures  goes  to  show  that  tliey 
are  not  receiving  what  is  justly  their  due,  according  to  tlie  work  they  per- 
form."— "  Cla?s  Intere>ts,  Their  Relation  to  Each  Other  and  to  Govern- 
ment," page  155.     D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1886. 

"  I  think  we  may  hope  to  discover  some  more  snti'=;factory  and  equitable 
basis  for  the  division  of  products,  because  such  a  discovery  is  essentiai  to 
the  further  development  of  our  Christian  civilization," — Prof.  Henry  C. 
Adams,  "The  Labor  Problem."     Edited  by  Wm.  E.  Barns. 


ADVANTAGE  OF  CAPITAL.  149 

direction,  or  some  otlicr  metliod  of  payment  must  gradually 
supplant  the  wage  system,  as  it  by  degrees  took  the  place  of 
forced  labor. 

To  assent  to  the  hopeless  argument  that  man  has  reached 
the  bound  of  his  possibilities  in  the  science  of  intlustrial  rela- 
tionship, and  that  the  problem  of  value  for  value  is  insolvable, 
is  to  relegate  the  industrial  world  to  a  condition  of  endless 
turmoil  which  must  eventually  result  in  the  political  consoli- 
dation of  labor  apart  from  capital,  with  unwise  demands,  and 
an  attempt  to  enforce  by  law  the  concessions  urged  by  reason. 
The  wage  receivers*  vote,  could,  if  cast  in  unity,  elect  State 
Legislatures,  Congress,  and  President  pledged  to  do  its  bid- 
ding, and  though  this  control  would  be  powerless  to  enforce 
laws  in  contravention  of  political  and  social  economy,  the  re- 
sultant temporary  demoralization  of  society  would  be  fraught 
with  more  danger  to  the  state  than  any  experiments  based  on 
a  departure  from  the  wage  system. 

In  a  thoughtful  address  at  the  ''  Industrial  Remuneration 
Congress,"  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison  said,  "  It  would  be  enough 
to  condemn  modern  society  as  hardly  an  advance  on  slavery 
or  serfdom,  if  the  permanent  conditions  of  industry  were  to 
be  that  which  we  behold." 

And  why  it  is  in  this  condition  may  perhaps  be  best  dis- 
covered from  the  analysis  of  profits  and  earnings  made  by  the 
Massachusetts  Burean  of  Labor  in  its  1883  report.*  Lowell, 
the  third  city  of  importance  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  has 
a  population  (1880)  of  59,475.  Its  capitalists  have  invested 
in  the  various  manufacturing  industries  of  the  place  the  sum 
of  ^19,021,450,  and  they  keep  in  employment  20,572  opera- 
tives, each  of  whom  earns  an  average  of  ^^289. 00  per  annum, 


*  "  If  the  question  should  be  asked,  has  the  wajje- worker  received  his 
equitable  share  of  ihe  benefits  derived  from  the  iniroduction  of  machinery, 
the  answer  must  be  no." — Fiisl  Annual  Report  of  the  United  States  CotiH 
fuisuoner  of  Labor ^  1886. 

"  The  present  amount  of  wages  usually  paid  does  not  give  to  the  wage- 
worker  comfortable  means  of  support  and  enable  him  to  lay  by  even  a 
moderate  fund  to  meet  the  exigencies  he  is  almost  certain  to  encounter." — 
Pennsylvania  Commissioner  of  Labor,  1884,  page  5. 


150  ANALYSIS   OF   PROFITS   AND   EARNINGS. 

in  exchange  for  the  labor  necessary  to  convert  ;^  15, 739,027 
worth  of  raw  material  into  products  having  a  selling  value  of 
$28,6^6,  icf6,  or,  debiting  wage  charges,  ^6,962,290  more  than 
original  cost.  Deducting  from  this  gross  profit  6  per  cent, 
interest  on  capital,  and  10  per  cent,  on  the  value  of  the  product 
for  administrative  expenses,  or  ^4,006,907,  a  net  profit  re- 
mains of  $2,955,383,  or  $143.00  for  every  person  employed. 
Fall  River,  with  a  working  population  of  16,488,  shows  a 
yearly  wage  payment  per  worker  of  $261.00  and  a  net  profit 
on  each  employ^  of  $78.00.  The  employes  of  Northborough, 
451  in  number,  earn  only  $276.00  each  annually,  and  their 
employers  realize  from  each  one's  industry  a  net  gain  of 
$714.00,  which  is  again  exceeded  by  Lunenburgh,  where  the 
enormous  profit  of  $1138.00  is  obtained  from  each  one  of 
42  work  people,  who  meanwhile  earn  for  themselves  only 
$286.00  each.  In  1880  the  average  yearly  earnings  of  56,813 
employes  in  Boston  were  $417.00  each,  and  the  net  profit  on 
their  labor  $126.00  each.  The  average  earnings  of  all  within 
the  state,  included  in  these  returns,  was  $364.00  per  annum, 
and  the  gain  $98.00  for  each  person  engaged.  In  this  com- 
pilation 14,560  establishments  were  represented,  employing 
352,225  people. 

An  examination  of  the  collective  profits  and  earnings  by 
industries  shows  a  generally  high  return  of  profit.  Thus, 
**  agricultural  implements"  give  $450.00  net  to  the  maker  for 
every  employ^ ;  "dyeing  and  finishing  textiles,"  $330.00; 
*Meather,"  $326.00;  "paper"  (employing  8375  persons 
earning  $381.00  each),  $156.00;  and  "clothing,"  $100.00. 
The  three  leading  industries  in  the  state,  "  boots  and  shoes," 
"cotton  goods,"  and  "woolen  goods,"  show  an  average  an- 
nual net  profit  per  employe  of  $12.00,  $78.00,  and  $169.00 
respectively,  and  the  net  earnings  of  those  employed  were 
$397.00,  $258.00,  and  $299.00.  Mr,  Carroll  D.  Wright 
thinks  that  the  capital  account  is  generally  understated,  and 
if  such  is  the  case,  net  profits  would  be  lessened  by  deduction 
for  additional  interest,  though  /fer  contra^  the  allowance  of 
10  per  cent,  for  running  expenses  seems  too  high.     Be  that 


ANAL^-SIS  OP  PROFITS  AND  EARNINGS.  151 

as  it  may,  the  figures  "stand  as  statements  of  facts,"  and  be- 
fore they  can  be  controverted  equally  weighty  and  careful 
statistics  will  have  to  be  adduced. 

Taking  Lowell  as  a  representative  city,  it  will  be  seen  that 
after  deducting  6  per  cent,  for  interest  on  the  capital  used, 
and  10  per  cent,  on  the  gross  value  of  product  for  insurance, 
rent,  depreciation  of  machinery,  salaries,  and  other  adminis- 
trative expenses,  there  remained  a  profit,  from  the  combina- 
tion of  20,572  work  people  and  $19,021,450  capital,  of 
$8,910,262,  which  should  have  been  fairly  divided  betwee^i 
capital  and  labor,  not  in  equal /r<7  rata^  but  in  "a  share  pro- 
portionate to  the  degree  in  which  they  had  respectively  aided 
production  directly  or  indirectly."  This  amount  was  $432.00 
for  each  person  employed,  of  which  in  the  division  each  em- 
ploy6  got  $289.00  and  capital  retained  $143.00;  that  is,  the 
one  received  about  66.9  per  cent,  of  the  residue  in  the  form 
of  wages  and  the  other  about  33.1  per  cent.,  after  already 
making  interest  a  first  charge.  Was  this  a  fair  distribution  ?  * 
The  employer  will  certainly  answer  *'  Yes,"  the  wage  receiver 
with  equal  certainty  say  "  No ; "  and  the  disinterested  arbi- 
ter called  upon  to  determine  the  dispute  on  the  sole  basis  of 
equity  can  have  little  hesitation  in  agreeing  with  the  latter. 
A  fair  distribution,  assuming  that  wages  were  the  normal 
average,  would  have  about  equally  divided  the  profit  remain- 
ing, after  the  payment  of  wages,  between  capital  and  labor, 
which  would  have  raised  the  earners*  share  $71.00,  giving  them 
$360.00  instead  of  $289.00  for  the  year's  labor,  and  the  cap- 
italist's profit  would  still  have  been  about  $72.00  or  ly^  per 
cent,  on   his  capital.     The  sum  fairly  earned  by  labor  was 

*  "  Capitalizing  wages  at  the  allowed  interest — 6  per  cent. — and  each 
earner  represents  the  sum  of  54816.00.  Multiplying  this  by  the  number 
of  the  employes  and  the  total,  $99,074,752,  may  f)e  called  labor's  contribu- 
tion to  production.  The  actual  amount  contril>uted  by  capital  was 
$19,021,450.  A  fair  division  of  profits  on  this  basis  would  j^ive  8389 
per  cent,  to  labor  and  16. 1 1  to  capital,  or  $362.40  to  the  employ^  in^lca  I 
of  the  $289.00  paid;  and  a  profit  of  $69.60  on  each  operative  to  actual 
capital,  in>tead  of  $143.00.  It  is  not  assumed  tlial  this  is  a  correct  foi- 
mula  for  a  fair  distribution,  but  it  tallies  very  closely  with  the  suggestion 
of  what  would  have  been  an  equitable  division." 


152  ANALYSIS   OF   PROFITS   AND   EARNINGS. 

therefore  a  little  less  than  $7.00  per  week,  that  being  all  that 
the  profits  on  the  industries  of  Lowell  allowed,  and  the  ^70.00 
that  it  did  not  receive  made  all  the  difference  in  a  large  num- 
ber of  families  between  comfort  and  discomfort,  happiness 
and  misery,  provision  for  old  age  and  after  dependence, 
gloom  and  sunshine;  all  the  difference  in  fact  between 
everything  that  is  comprehended  in  the  words  justice  and 
injustice. 

The  reverse  of  the  illustration  afforded  by  Lowell  may  be 
seen  in  other  places.  The  competition  of  capital  for  employ- 
ment is  so  great  in  England  that  mill-owners  engaged  in  the 
production  of  textile  fabrics,  Lowell's  chief  industry,  and  for 
which  there  is  said  to  be  an  illimitable  demand,  are  content 
to  earn  5  or  6  percent.  Mr.  Mulhall  says,*  ''So  far  from 
capitalists  defrauding  workmen  of  their  fair  wages,  it  is  mani- 
fest that  in  Europe,  and  especially  in  England,  the  share  of 
profit  accruing  to  the  employer  of  labor  has  almost  reached 
a  minimum,  and  that  manufacturing  industry  will  not  be 
worth  carrying  on  if  his  share  be  further  diminished."  The 
earnings  of  British  operatives,  according  to  the  same  au- 
thority, range  from  30  to  ^^  per  cent,  of  the  value  of  pro- 
ducts, while  in  the  United  States  the  average  is  only  18  per 
cent.,  but  other  causes  combine  to  make  the  American  work- 
man **  better  off  than  his  English  brother."  The  average 
returns  upon  an  invested  capital  of  thousands  of  millions 
sterling  in  Great  Britain  is  only  4  per  cent.,  and  as  just 
wages  are  dependent  upon  profits,  it  is  evident  that  in  the 
industries  represented  by  these  investments  workmen  are 
receiving  all  that  can  be  expected.  Sir  Thomas  Brassey 
lately  pointed  out  that  "the  rate  of  profit  in  business  is  a 
subject  of  great  importance  to  the  laborer,"  and  it  is  obvious 
from  the  illustrations  here  given  that  there  is  no  paradox  in 
the  assertion  so  frequently  made  that  the  interests  of  labor 
and  capital  are  closely  allied.  The  endeavor  of  both  should 
therefore  be  to  work  in  harmony,  to  reduce  the  expenses  of 

*  "History  of  Prices,"  page  127. 


ANALYSIS   OF   PROPITS    AND    EARNINGS.  153 

mannqcmcnt,  to  increase  ilieir  reciprocal  eflficiency,  and  so 
add  to  prufit  by  reducing  cost  of  production  ;  all  of  which 
again  is  in  confirmation  of  the  reiterated  arguments  previously 
presented,  that  the  moral  and  the  economic  law,  when  rightly 
understood,  are  in  effect  one. 

It  may  be  said  that  because  labor  has  a  preferred  claim  on 
capital,  and  that  as  wages  are  paid  whether  the  enterprise  in 
which  they  jointly  engage  is  profitable  or  otherwise,  capital, 
in  taking  all  the  risk,  should,  after  payment  of  prevailing 
hire,  have  all  the  gain.  But  profits  depend  largely  upon  gd-^ 
mmjstratjve^biUtx  and  labor  does  not  agree  to  furnish  that. 
Yet  to  obviate  all  grounds  of  dispute  a  portion  of  the  profits 
might  be  held  in  reserve  to  insure  against  depression,  as  is 
done  in  many  establishments  where  the  principle  of  profit- 
sharing  prevails.  Neither  has  labor  any  equitable  right  to 
prei)ayment  before  its  products  are  sold,  and  capital,  as  Pro- 
fessor Walker  has  said,  would  be  justified  in  charging  interest 
on  advances.  The  ordinary  method  of  prepayment,  without 
any  original  intention  of  making  it  so,  is  one  of  the  strongest 
rivets  that  fastens  labor  to  the  wage  system,  because  it  is  a 
payment  before  profits  have  been  ascertained,  and  the  dis- 
charge of  an  obligation  in  advance,  for  a  smaller  sum  than 
its  com])letion  would  equitably  call  for.  If  industries  were 
everywhere  uniformly  productive,  profits  and  wages  could  be 
calculated  with  the  utmost  nicety,  and  the  strict  law  of  value 
for  value  carefully  applied  by  advance  payment.  As  it  is,  the 
value  of  one  factor  in  production  is  determined  before  there 
has  been  any  accurate  adjustment  of  results,  and  in  the  un- 
certainty that  necessarily  prevails,  capital  takes  care  to  pro- 
tect itself  by  allowing  the  widest  possil)le  margin  for  loss. 

Is  it  not  apparent  then  that  the  true  method  of  determin- 
ing true  earnings  is  to  strike  a  profit  and  loss  account  at 
stated  intervals,  after  the  distribution  of  the  product  from  its 
manufactory,  and  apportion  the  remaining  balance  on  an 
agreed  basis  in  accordance  with  the  respective  contributions 
of  capital  and  labor,  and  not  as  now  by  making  a  first  and 
final  payment  to  labor  while  that  balance  is  unascertained? 


154  CORPORATIONS. 

This  would  be  co-operation,  not  only  in  production,  but  in 
results.  From  that  ultimate  neither  labor  nor  capital  could 
with  any  reason  appeal,  and  all  other  methods  of  determining 
value  for  value  must  be  crude  and  unsatisfactory  until  the  ap- 
portionment is  thus  made.  Failing  this,  combinations  of 
capitalists  here  and  of  laborers  there,  competition  for  work- 
men in  one  ])lace  and  for  work  in  another,  will  alternately 
rise  and  depress  the  operatives'  share  of  the  proceeds ;  miti- 
gating circumstances  will  constantly  render  the  lot  of  the 
poor  more  bearable,  but  in  the  meantime  the  mountain  of 
capital,  growing  apace,  will  become  like  a  Pelion  piled  on 
Ossa,  and  so  it  will  go  on,  as  it  goes  on  now,  until  the  em- 
ployer finally  admits  that  the  laborer  is  worthy  not  of  as  lit- 
tle as  he  will  take,  not  of  as  much  as  will  make  him  for  the 
moment  loyal  and  satisfied,  but  of  his  hire  in  the  fullest, 
largest  and  most  liberal  sense,  gauged  by  his  contributive 
ability  as  a  workman. 

The  centralization  of  industry  will  aid  in  bringing  about 
this  desired  result.  At  present  its  efforts  have  been  to  make 
the  capitalist  look, upon  the  workman  as  part  of  a  machine 
whose  loss  could  be  easily  filled  by  a  duplicate ;  and  espe- 
cially has  this  been  the  case  with  corporate  employers.  The 
concentration  of  several  passably  humane  persons  into  a  legal 
unit  has  seemed  to  eliminate  the  virtues  they  individually  pos- 
sessed, while  it  retained  in  a  pronounced  form  all  their  bad 
qualities,  with  the  addition  of  some  new  ones.  A  single  mas- 
ter may  have  a  paternal  care  for  his  men.  He  may  feel  that 
there  is  room  for  a  reciprocal  interest ;  but  when  the  visible 
head  of  a  concern  is  only  a  directory  intent  on  earning  divi- 
dends for  shareholders  resident  in  a  dozen  lands,  and  seeking 
for  a  further  illegitimate  profit  by  stock  exchange  variations, 
of  which  its  members  will  have  prior  knowledge;  to  expect 
sympathy  from  such  a  source  would  be  to  endow  machinery 
with  cognition  and  a  consciousness  of  moral  responsibility. 
Ruskiti  in  one  of  his  work  speaks  of  a  type  of  millionaire 
who  uses  **his  breadth  and  sweep  of  right  to  gather  some 
branch  of  the  commerce  of  the  country  into  one  great  cobweb, 


conroiiATiONS.  155 

of  which  he  liimself  is  to  be  the  great  central  spider,  making 
every  thread  vibrate  with  the  point  of  his  claws  and  com- 
manding every  avenue  with  the  facets  of  his  eyes."  Too 
many  capitalists  have  been  indoctrinated  with  a  similar  pur- 
pose. All  rights,  including  those  of  manhood,  have  been 
made  subservient  to  their  monetary  profit.  They  would  exist 
as  embodied  mammons.  The  stock  exchange  has  been  their 
temple,  and  dividends  their  deity.  As  the  successors  of  the 
factory  kings  they  have  endeavored  to  perpetuate  a  rule  of 
injustice,  and  become  lords  over  new  kingdoms  by  seizing 
everything  that  could  be  seized,  until  by  their  persistence  in 
overriding  the  popular  will  they  have  most  worthily  earned 
those  attributes  of  greed  and  mcrcilessness  with  which  they 
are  commonly  endowed. 

Such  was,  and  to  a  certain  extent  still  is,  the  general  course 
of  those  imperial  aggregations  that  have  been  developed  by 
the  requirements  of  modern  life.  They  are  the  natural  pro- 
duct of  the  enormous  scale  of  modern  operations  ;  their  vast- 
ness  is  symbolical  of  the  age,  and  the  probability  is  that  they 
will  grow  in  magnitude  until  they  reach  the  limits  of  human 
management.  But  it  does  not  follow  that  the  abuses  they 
have  engendered  will  increase  with  their  growth.  Judging 
from  the  analogy  of  the  factory  system  and  how  easily  its  in- 
humanities were  remedied  as  soon  as  a  determined  public  will 
opposed  them,  an  eradication  is  more  likely.  It  is  easier  to 
remove  a  concentrated  than  a  diffused  evil ;  a  large  body 
draws  upon  itself  a  closer  scrutiny  than  a  small  one  ;  its  de- 
fects are  more  visible,  and  if  necessary  it  can  be  struck  a 
sturdier  blow.  So  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  corpo- 
rations will  ever  be  less  amenable  to  state  control  than  at 
present,  or  that  they  are  likely  to  exercise  a  stronger  political 
influence  than  now.  On  the  contrary,  there  are  indications 
that  they  will  confine  themselves  more  strictly  to  their  legiti- 
mate functions,  and  even  some  evidences  that  they  may  even- 
tually be  infused  with  that  spirit  of  liberality  which  so  fre- 
quently marks  the  individual  employer. 

The  evolution  of  the  factory  from  domestic  industry,  and 


156  AN   ADVANCE  STEP. 

of  the  corporation  from  the  factory,  renders  possible  the  next 
step  in  advance,  and  that  without  the  disorganization  that 
generally  attends  a  forward  movement.  A  few  adventurers 
have  already  blazed  a  path  into  the  new  ground,  and  indus- 
trial copartnership  as  applied  to  production  is  even  now  some- 
thing more  than  the  hope  of  the  future  by  being  partially 
realized  in  the  present.  If  therefore,  as  labor  unanimously 
claims,  and  many  capitalists  admit,  the  competitive  system 
by  which  the  dealings  between  employed  and  employer  have 
hitherto  been  governed  has  not  afforded  the  best  possible 
method  of  determining  what  proportion  of  the  profits  on 
production  are  fairly  due  to  each,  there  is  no  reason  why  it 
should  continue  to  regulate  industrial  relations  a  day  longer 
than  necessary.  If,  however,  as  Mr.  Bigelow  asserted  some 
years  ago,  "Its  universality  is  sufficient  proof  of  being  an 
expression  of  some  natural  law,  and  all  experience  goes  to 
show  that  law  is  the  law  of  supply  and  demand,"  those  who 
tread  the  winepress  must  continue  to  suffer  thirst,  there  can 
be  no  hope  of  change,  and  all  propositions  looking  to  one 
must  either  be  chimerical  or  based  on  some  hidden  fallacy. 
Yet  universality,  outside  the  domain  of  physics,  can  scarcely 
be  considered  a  tenable  argument.  Slavery,  polygamy,  re- 
curring famine,  and  the  plague,  were  once  universal,  but 
society  has  outgrown  these  and  other  ills.  Natural  law  found 
no  expression  in  such  things.  They  were,  on  the  contrary, 
the  results  of  non-compliance  with  the  laws  of  nature,  and 
the  same  must  be  said  of  the  evils  inherent  in  a  system  that 
forces  men  into  destructive  competition  with  one  another ;  a 
competition  that  is  not  a  mere  gentle  passage  of  arms  for 
noble  motive,  but  a  fierce  struggle,  with  poverty  and  repres-, 
sion  for  the  vanquished,  and  little  more  than  a  livelihood  for 
the  victor.* 

If  we  admit  therefore  that  these  conditions  are  irremediable, 
and  that  having  struggled  so  far  into  an  estate  of  freedom, 

*  "  Competition  is  put  forth  as  the  law  of  the  universe.  That  is  a  lie. 
The  time  is  come  for  us  to  declare  that  it  is  a  lie  by  word  and  deed." — 
Letter  of  Frederick  Denison  Maurice  to  Chas.  Kingsley,  January  2,  1850. 


AN    ADVANCE   STEP.  157 

we  are  bound  in  the  meshes  of  a  law  from  which  there  is  no 
escape,  tlie  world  has  only  excliangcd  its  primitive  warlike 
attitude,  when  every  man's  hand  was  raised  against  every 
ctlier  man,  for  a  mitigated  social  status  of  the  same  kind. 
But  the  old  condition  was  not  in  harmony  with  the  moral 
law ;  neither  is  the  new  one.  We  know  that  it  is  ordained 
that  the  earth  shall  bring  forth  its  thorns  and  thistles,  and 
that  our  bread  must  be  earned  with  toil.  These  are  the  un- 
avoidable conditions  of  existence,  figuratively  and  literally; 
yet  God  laid  no  bounds  on  the  possibilities  of  moral  progres- 
sion. Justice  and  judgment  are  the  habitation  of  his  throne, 
and  he  commands  justice  of  man,  be  the  cost  what  it  may. 
**  Whosoever  is  born  of  God  doth  not  commit  sin,"  says  St, 
John,  and  in  this  saying  there  is  an  infinitude  of  expansion 
that  includes  all  moral  possibility.  So  there  is  and  can  be 
no  limitation  in  the  divine  law  to  the  progress  of  society, 
and  if  the  modern  industrial  system  is  incapable  of  amend- 
ment, it  will  of  a  certainty  be  superseded  by  another  with  less 
friction  ;  which  will  allay  instead  of  irritate  social  dissatisfac- 
tion ;  which  will  approach  nearer  the  principles  of  justice, 
and  as  a  consequence  nearer  to  the  fulfilment  of  that  law  of 
love  to  which  industrial  society  must  ultimately  conform. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    UNITY    OF    FORCES. 

"  So  then,  neither  is  he  that  planteth  anything,  neither  he  that  water- 
eth;  but  God  that  giveth  the  increase.  Now  he  that  planteth  and  he 
that  walerelh  are  one :  and  every  man  shall  receive  his  own  reward 
according  to  his  own  labor." — i  Cor.  3  :  7,  8. 

"  Every  element  of  production  must  particijiate  in  all  profits  in  propor- 
tion to  the  services  it  has  rendered." — M.  Godin. 

The  elective  attraction,  known  in  chemistry  as  affinity, 
establislies  a  much  closer  combination  between  the  original 
elements  than  cohesion.  The  latter  merely  binds  together 
particles  in  molecular  union  without  changing  their  indi- 
vidual properties,  while  the  former,  taking  effect  generally 
through  solution,  produces  new  compounds,  having  new  and 
unlooked-for  attributes,  often  radically  different  from  their 
separates. 

These  qualities  of  inorganic  matter  have  higher  correspond- 
encies. There  has  always  been  the  cohesion  of  self-interest. 
It  has  formed  the  granitic  basis  of  institutions;  subject,  like 
the  rocks,  to  the  attrition  of  time,  and  occasionally  to  the 
disruption  of  the  earthquake,  but  holding  together  with  a 
tenacity  of  resistance  that  has  been  difficult  to  overcome. 
And  though  cohesion  is  as  necessary  a  property  of  the  social 
as  of  the  physical  organization,  yet  there  can  never  be  in  it 
that  closeness  of  union  or  development  of  hidden  possibilities 
that  proceeds  from  affinity.  From  the  latter  has  been  evolved 
most  of  the  forward  movements  of  the  world.  It  gave  to 
Europe  the  Reformation,  to  England  the  Revolution  of 
1688,  to  the  American  colonies  their  independence,  and  it 
is  to-day  imparting  to  both  capital  and  labor,  surely  if 
slowly,  higher  attributes  than  they  have  hitherto  possessed. 
(168) 


SOCIAL   AFFINITY.  159 

As  the  affinity  of  chemical  atoms  is  greatly  promoted  by 
light,  so  the  coalescence  of  the  social  units  is  liastencd  by  the 
diffusion  of  knowledge  pertaining  to  physical,  social,  and 
moral  law.  Under  its  influence  apparent  opposites  that  have 
been  held  together  by  cohesion,  make  harmonious  conjunction 
and  give  birth  to  new  forces  and  new  results.  Master  and 
slave  find  that  they  are  niutually  dependent,  and  from  thence 
is  evolved  honest  labor.  Kings  and  i)eople  discover  that  they 
have  common  enemies  and  common  ties,  and  from  their 
councils  parliaments  are  formed.  Homogeneous  elements 
blend  together  in  nationality,  and  from  tlie  mingling  comes 
a  better  type  of  manhood;  and  in  the  same  way  capital  and 
labor,  with  interests  supposed  to  be  diametrically  opposed, 
have  only  to  submit  themselves  to  the  known  laws  of  sociology 
and  morals,  as  illuminated  by  divine  wisdom,  to  find  an  affin- 
ity from  which  will  come  new  influences,  new  forces,  and  a 
new  society. 

The  industrial  partnership  of  labor  and  capital  seems  to 
afford  a  readier  solution  for  a  greater  number  of  the  disputes 
between  the  productive  factors  than  any  method  yet  proposed. 
It  would  immediately  determine  the  wage  question,  together 
with  its  offshoot,  the  length  of  a  day's  labor;  and  these 
causes  for  dissatisfaction  once  out  of  the  way,  all  subsidiary 
difficulties  could  be  speedily  adjusted,  for  the  minor  discon- 
tents revolve  round  them  like  satellites  round  a  central  sun, 
and  without  it  could  have  no  independent  existence.  Pay 
labor  all  it  earns,  and  nothing  more  can  be  demanded  of 
capital ;  for  fair  wages  arc  a  full  satisfaction  of  the  claims 
that  labor  has  on  wealth  devoted  to  reproduction,  and  any- 
thing that  capital  gives  beyond  that  will  be  of  grace  and  not 
of  right. 

The  labor  question  is  such  a  complex  intermingling  of 
economic  and  moral  considerations,  that  any  equitable  settle- 
ment of  the  one  will  contain  the  other.  Let  the  workman 
therefore  only  be  satisfied  that  he  is  receiving  the  measure  of 
payment  to  which  he  is  entitled  by  his  ability,  and  he  will 
immediately  perceive   that   any   further  advancement   must 


160  INDUSTRIAL   PARTNERSHIP.. 

depend  upon  himself,  by  the  exercise  of  those  fundamental 
qualities  which  bring  prosperity  in  other  walks  of  life.  From 
this  would  spring  that  inducement  to  higher  effort  which 
influences  and  tempers  motive  both  within  and  without  the 
daily  vocation,  with  the  result  of  greater  industry,  better 
care  of  property,  the  prevention  of  waste,  the  reduction  of 
operating  expenses,  the  attention  to  minor  details  of  effi- 
ciency, and  a  general  assiduity  in  the  furtherance  of  profit 
that  of  itself  would  be  largely  instrumental  in  making  gain. 
Labor  is  now  a  preferred  creditor,  and  paid  before  capital 
receives  any  return.  The  inducements  to  economy  of  time 
and  material  are  thus  almost  imperceptible.  Earnings  are 
apparently  fixed,  and  the  employe  has  only  to  conform  to  the 
standard  of  efficiency,  economy  and  industry  that  prevails  in 
the  occupation  to  be  acceptable.  Conscientiousness  in  respect 
to  the  one  or  the  other  accrue  to  the  sole  profit  of  the  em- 
ployer, and  thus  the  immediate  impulse  for  high  efficiency  is 
abstracted  and  the  natural  incentive  that  moves  men  in  other 
pursuits  is  rendered  nugatory. 

A  settlement  of  the  central  question  would  in  addition 
banish  from  the  industrial  sphere  those  grotesque  counter- 
parts of  civilized  warfare  with  which  we  are  now  so  sadly 
familiar.  It  is  a  trite  remark  to  say  that  strikes  and  lockouts 
are  as  unreasonable  as  battle  and  siege,  and  prove  nothing  but 
the  superior  force  of  the  victor ;  yet  they  are  constantly  re- 
sorted to  under  the  apparently  honest  conviction  that  a  test 
of  endurance  is  the  only  test  of  right.  The  equities  between 
capital  and  labor  are  more  nicely  poised  than  formerly,  and 
the  weight  of  justice  on  either  side  of  their  disputes  is  rarely 
sufficient  to  counterbalance  extraneous  advantages.  A  fair 
determination  of  the  matter  at  issue  almost  always  involves 
judicial  nicety;  still  such  is  the  crudeness  of  our  social  science 
that  hardly  a  day  passes  without  a  formal  declaration  of  en- 
mity on  a  large  scale,  between  the  two  mainsprings  of  civiliza- 
tion. If  co-operation  effected  no  other  good,  industrial  peace 
at  least  must  come  from  it,  as  men  will  not  war  on  them- 
selves or  reduce  the  value  of  their  own  property,  and  under 


CO-OPERATION.  161 

any  form  of  partnership  the  bitterness  with  which  disputes 
between  employer  and  employed  are  now  charged  would  be 
unknown. 

The  far-reaching  effects  of  co-operation  beyond  the  work- 
shop or  occupation  must,  in  their  ultimate,  embrace  the  well- 
being  of  the  individual  and  society,  and  if  further  re-enforced 
by  the  divine  law  of  love,  by  the  freedom  that  comes  with 
virtue,  by  the  aspiration  that  immortality  has  implanted,  by 
the  true  religion  of  faith  in  God  and  man,  the  world  of  the 
twentieth  century  will  be  as  much  in  advance  of  the  world 
of  to-day  as  the  distance  that  marks  the  American  republic 
from  that  of  Rome.  For  whatever  changes  experience  may 
make  in  industrial  systems,  however  much  prosperity  and  just 
distribution  may  add  to  the  material  wealth  of  a  people,  what- 
ever opportunities  increased  leisure  may  afford  for  education 
and  culture,  whatever  gifts  science  may  have  in  store  for  the 
future,  the  real  progress  of  this  or  any  nation  will  be  slow 
unless  accompanied  by  the  spirituality  that  proceeds  from 
above.  Profit-making  can  no  more  knit  society  together 
than  art  or  literature ;  for  only  the  love  which  is  of  Christ 
closely  unites.  It  touches  the  buyer  and  seller  in  the  ex- 
change, and  there  is  no  concealment  of  defects,  or  attempted 
depreciation  of  values.  It  abides  in  the  factory,  and  changes 
the  din  of  machinery  into  a  song  of  bread-winning  for  the 
little  ones;  it  enters  the  counting-house,  and  transforms  the 
relations  of  capital  and  labor,  coldly  assumed  for  mutual 
advantage,  into  the  warmth  of  sympathy;  it  dwells  in  the 
houses  of  the  rich,  and  charity  issues  forth,  burdened  with 
the  gifts  of  compassion  and  comforting  words;  and  wherever 
it  is  permitted  to  come,  be  it  home  or  workshop  or  street,  it 
gilds  and  haloes  all  things  with  a  light  divine  that  refines, 
purifies  and  makes  glad,  for  it  is  of  God  and  from  God. 

There  are  several  forms  of  productive  co-operation  and 
numerous  variations  in  each  form.  One  method  is  a  simple 
partnership  of  workmen  having  their  own  capital,  large  or 
small,  and  operating  on  the  basis  "  of  each  doing  a  full  day's 
work  on  some  kind  of  production,"  and  dividing  the  gain 
11 


162  CO-OPERATION. 

therefrom.  Another  is  the  owning  of  capital  stock  by  work- 
men in  the  concern  that  employs  them,  and  thus,  besides  re- 
ceiving wages,  becoming  participators  in  the  profits.  Simi- 
larly, a  sliding  scale  of  wages  adjusted  to  profit  has  in  a 
measure  the  effect  of  profit-sharing,  and  the  same  may  be  said 
of  any  gratuitous  benefits  maintained  by  the  employer  out  of 
his  gain,  for  the  well-being  or  enjoyment  of  his  workers. 

But  what  is  generally  meant  by  the  term  is  the  direct  alli- 
ance of  labor  and  capital  with  an  equitable  apportionment  to 
each  of  the  results  remaining  after  payment  of  agreed  wages 
and  interest;  or  failing  this  full  division,  a  bonus  paid  out 
of  profits  to  labor,  in  addition  to  customary  wages.  The  first 
mentioned  methods  either  isolate  capital  from  labor,  or  estab- 
lish only  a  temporary  cohesion,  while  true  co-operation  con- 
templates an  affinity  by  the  voluntary  association  of  certain 
persons  having  capital  with  certain  persons  having  labor,  and 
a  division  of  profits,  should  there  be  any,  on  the  basis  of  the 
capital  invested  and  the  labor  performed.  It  recognizes  as  an 
incontrovertible  truth  that  *Mie  that  planteth  and  he  that 
watereth  are  one  ;  and  every  man  sliall  receive  his  own  reward 
according  to  his  own  labor."  It  seeks  neither  unfair  advan- 
tage for  the  strength  and  skill  of  toil  or  the  power  of  money, 
but  combining  both  under  the  direction  of  administrative 
ability  would  return  to  both  their  reward  in  measure  with 
their  contribution,  and  in  this  distribution  solve  the  problem 
that  has  troubled  all  ages  by  determining  what  is  labor's  true 
hire.*     For  divergence  and  antagonism,  or  at  best  cohesion, 

*"  The  workmen  employed  in  an  incUistrial  eslablisliment  are  paid 
either  by  lime  or  the  piece.  In  neither  case  is  there  any  obvious  connec- 
tinn  l)etvveen  the  amount  of  the  earnings  and  the  prosperity  of  the  employ- 
in;^  concern.  They  have  no  share  in  its  direction  ;  in  the  case  of  private 
iinilertakings  they  are,  as  a  rule,  sedulously  excluded  from  all  knowledge 
of  the  state  of  its  affairs.  Further,  the  rates  of  their  time  or  piece-work 
wages  are  avowedly  fixed,  not  on  any  consideration  of  equity,  but  by  the 
varying  vicissitudes  of  a  nevier  ending  struggle,  in  which  one  side  strives 
to  pay  as  little,  and  the  other  to  obtain  as  much,  as  possible.  It  would 
almost  seem  as  if  the  system  had  been  deliberately  planned  to  withhold 
from  workmen  all  insight  into  the  connection  between  effort  and  its  natural 
reward ;  or,  should  they  attain  such  knowledge,  at  any  rate  to  prevent  its 
having  any  stimulating  effect  upon  their  conduct." — Mr.  Sedley  Taylor, 


FAILURE  OF  CO-OPERATION.  163 

It  would  substitute  industrial  affinity,  unity  of  forces  and  re- 
ciprocal obligation.  It  would  clothe  anew  in  nineteenth  cen- 
tury garments  the  community  of  human  interests,  the  frater- 
nity of  all  ranks  and  conditions  of  men,  and  realizing  the 
dreams  of  past  visionaries  and  enthusiasts  show  that  society 
has  fwi  reached  the  limits  of  its  moral  attainments,  that  the 
equities  of  human  relations  ripen  and  broaden  with  the  years 
and  the  progress  of  knowledge,  and  that  the  eternal  fiat  of  the 
Creator,  "Let  there  be  light,"  can  still  be  answered  by  the 
words,  **and  there  was  light." 

It  is  unfortunately  true  that  simple  co-operation  has  not 
accomplished  what  its  promoters  expected.  As  Mr.  Frederick 
Harrison  says,  **  It  has  been  a  cruel  disappointment  to  the 
noble-hearted  men  who  forty  years  ago  and  since  have  hoped 
that  they  had  found  a  new  social  machine,  to  see  those  hopes 
ruined  by  the  indomitable  force  of  personal  interest  and  the 
old  Adam  of  industrial  selfishness."  Christian  socialism 
which  did  so  much  for  the  poor  and  oppressed  in  other 
directions  must  acknowledge  a  defeat  in  this,  and  Maurice's 
purpose  of  turning  **a  number  of  warring  forces,  each  seek- 
ing the  other's  destruction,  into  harmony,  by  certain  scien- 
tific arrangements  concerning  production  and  consumption," 
has  been  in  England  at  least  a  notable  though  glorious 
failure. 

The  reasons  for  this  are  not  difficult  to  discern.  Associa- 
tions of  tailors  and  needlewomen,  without  experience,  educa- 
tion or  practical  direction,  possessing  less  than  the  average 
of  ability,  and  with  no  capital  except  a  bolt  of  cloth  or  cot- 
ton, could  not  possibly  hold  their  own  against  well-organized 
competition  with  abundant  capital,  controlled  by  experience. 
The  enthusiasm  of  those  who  launched  these  schemes  com- 
mitted them  to  the  mistake  of  dissociating  capital  from  labor, 
while  true  co-operation  no  more  contemplates  production 
without  capital  than  the  factory-owner  expects  profit  without 


'♦"Proceedings  of  the  Industrial   Remuneration   Congress   Conference," 
London,  1885. 


164  FAILURE  OF  CO-OPERATION. 

the  co-ordinates  necessary  to  produce.  "  Workingmen  in 
order  to  be  qualified  to  engage  in  independent  co-operation," 
Mr.  Thornton  says,*  "must  be  provided  with  two  things — 
capital  and  special  training" — and  neither  of  these  has  labor 
yet  possessed.  The  opportunity  to  acquire  the  administrative 
science,  without  which  profits  are  almost  impossible,  has 
always  been  wanting,  so  that  even  if  sufficient  capital  had 
been  forthcoming  to  conduct  its  early  enterprises  on  a  com- 
mensurate scale  with  others,  it  must  have  failed  for  lack  of  tliis, 
and  in  the  absence  of  both  elementary  requisites,  success  was 
of  necessity  unattainable. 

Further  we  see  how  difficult  it  is  for  the  smaller  capitalist 
to  hold  his  own  against  the  larger.  The  great  railroads  absorb 
the  little  ones ;  the  mill  with  25,000  spindles  is  able  to  under- 
sell the  one  with  5000 ;  the  palatial  dry-goods  store  builds  up 
its  pitiless  prosperity  on  the  ruin  of  twenty  smaller  com- 
petitors. The  power  of  capital,  like  the  value  of  a  diamond, 
increases  in  arithmetical  proportion  to  its  size.  One  hundred 
thousand  dollars  is  more  than  ten  times  as  efficient  as  ten 
separate  sums  of  ten  thousand  dollars.  These  will  probably 
be  pulling  in  opposite  directions.;  but  the  momentum  of  the 
larger  amount  can,  if  desired,  crush  the  others  singly,  so  that 
to  be  successful  under  modern  conditions,  a  large  amount  of 
capital  is  required.  Industrial  partnership  contemplates  this 
and  piovides  for  it,  while  the  first  forms  of  co-operation  did 
not. 

Yet  even  in  its  simple  attempts  the  failure  has  not  been  ab- 
solute, though  the  rarity  of  success  demonstrates  that  there  is 
no  palladium  here  for  industrial  difficulties.  In  1870  the  co- 
operative production  societies  of  Paris,  after  all  the  et:/a/  with 
which  they  were  founded  twenty-two  years  before,  numbered 
but  twenty,  though  by  1885  they  had  increased  to  seventy- 
four,  with  a  membership  of  4920.  One  of  these  associa- 
\tions — the  Jewelers' — has  sometimes  given  its  members  a 
Wofit  equal  to  a  whole  year's  pay ;    the  Masons    have   had 

*  "  On  Labor,"  page  390. 


CO-OPERATIVE  SOCIETIES  ABROAD.  165 

dividends  of  J300  each  per  annum,  in  addition  to  prevailing 
wages;  the  Joiners  (started  since  18S0),  with  but  5600  capi- 
tal, doubled  that  amount  during  the  first  year,  and,  strange 
to  say,  neither  the  German  war  nor  the  Commune  had  any 
injurious  effect  on  their  prosperity.  This  is  a  very  poor  result 
to  show  for  the  high  hopes  of  forty  years,  yet,  small  as  it  is,  it 
surpasses  the  exhibit  made  by  England,  where  some  forty-two 
associations  represent  all  that  has  been  immediately  accom- 
plished, and  of  tliese  twenty  have  commenced  operations  since 
1883.*  At  that  date  their  annual  production  was  less  than 
1 1, 000, 000,  and  the  net  profits  of  fifteen  of  the  larger  con- 
cerns (comprising  co-operative  printing,  worsted,  watch,  nail, 
quilt,  hosiery,  cutlery,  etc.)  show  a  return  of  a  little  more 
than  12  per  cent,  on  a  capital  of  $357,605.  A  special  feature 
of  the  English  societies  is  that  many  of  them,  after  declaring 
dividends  of  about  7)4  per  cent,  to  capital,  return  nearly  half 
of  the  remaining  profit  as  a  bonus  to  purchasers,  leaving  the 
balance  for  the  workers,  as  an  addition  to  wages.  Thus  capi- 
tal, consumer  and  labor  are  considered  in  the  final  distribu- 
tion, and  beyond  this  equity  certainly  could  not  go.  No  one 
ever  heard  of  a  repentant  manufacturer  finding  profits  too 
large  for  his  conscience  and  sending  a  pro  rata  check  for  the 
excess  to  each  of  his  customers.  Yet  these  printers,  weavers, 
nailmakers  and  cutlers  had  such  a  sense  of  the  prior  claims 
of  both  capitalist  and  consumer  that  they  were  content  to 
forego  all  extra  remuneration  until  the  others  were  fairly  dealt 
with,  from  which  it  is  a  deduction  that  wlien  workingnjen 
have  been  properly  educated  to  manage  their  own  industries, 
and  have  gained  confidence  by  success,  they  will  be  actuated 
by  juster  motives  than  have  hitherto  prevailed. f 


*  See  tabulated  statement  in  the  Report  of  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  La- 
bor, Massachusetts,  1886. 

f  Between  1870  and  1875  thirteen  co  operative  manufacturinir  associa- 
tions were  organized  in  Massachusetts,  but  in  1884  only  Iwo  of  them  were 
in  existence.  Others  sub.'-equently  formed  l^rought  the  number  in  opera- 
tion that  year  up  to  ten,  comprising  three  foundries,  one  chair  company, 
one  furniture  company,  and  the  remainder  boot  and  shoe  manufacturing 
companies.    Three  of  these  enterprises  have  not  yet  paid  a  profit,  and  the 


166  CO-OrERATIVE   SOCIETIES   ABROAD. 

It  must  be  admitted,  therefore,  that,  notwithstanding  an 
occasional  exception,  the  "new  social  machinery"  of  Mau- 
rice, Kingsley  and  the  Christian  socialists  has  refused  to  do 
its  intended  work.  Yet  the  success  of  industrial  partnership 
is  largely  attributable  to  the  experience  growing  out  of  these 
abortive  attempts,  and  though  they  have  failed  to  make  the 
simple  co-operation  of  labor  the  basis  of  society,  they  have 
been  instrumental  in  laying  the  foundation  of  the  largest 
industrial  reforms. 

To  assert  that  the  hope  of  industrialism  largely  rests  on  the 
adoption  of  some  method  by  which  capital  and  labor  can 
associate  for  profit-making  on  an  equitable  basis,*  is  to  affirm 
the  entire  argument.  In  Mr.  Thornton's  terse  words, f  "One- 
half  of  mankind  will  never  submit  quietly  to  have  their  main- 
tenance dependent  on  the  other  half's  caprice,  to  be  mere 
instruments  of  production,  working  mainly  for  the  benefit  of 
privileged  customers.  With  such  a  state  of  things  they  can- 
not be  expected  to  be  content.  While  it  endures  there  can 
be  no  social  peace,  and  it  would  be  humiliating  to  human 
nature  if  there  could  be.  How  to  end  it  is  the  most  pressing 
of  social  problems." 

One  plan  of  ending  it,  by  the- employed  becoming  their 
own  employers,  has  been  tried  by  many  English  associations ; 
that  is,  they  have  merged  the  functions  of  capital  and  labor 


stockholders  working  them  have  only  received  usual  wages.  Three  others 
have  paid  very  small  dividends,  and  the  remaining  four  have  returned 
from  7.60  to  14.15  per  cent,  to  working  shareholders,  in  addition  to  wages. 
All  have  suffered  more  or  less  from  the  lack  of  capital,  wliich  the  man- 
agers emphasize  as  most  essential  to  success.  See  Bureau  of  Statistics  of 
Labor,  Massachusetts,  1886.  Within  the  last  two  or  three  years  productive 
co-operation  can  record  several  unexpected  successes  in  the  Western 
States,  particularly  in  Minnesota.  A  very  interesting  account  of  the  Min- 
nesota enterprises  has  recently  been  published  under  the  title  of  "  Co- 
operation in  a  Western  City." 

*  Mr.  Babbage,  the  inventor  of  the  once  celebrated  calculating  ma- 
chine, is  entitled  to  the  honor  of  having  made  the  first  definite  proposal 
for  profit-sharing.  In  his  work,  "  On  the  Economy  of  Machinery  and 
Manufactures,"  published  in  1832,  he  suggests  (pages  249-50)  that  "a 
considerable  part  of  the  wages  received  by  each  person  employed  should 
depend  on  the  profits  made  by  the  establishment." 

f  "  On  Labor,"  page  395. 


CO-OPERATIVE  SOCIETIES   ABROAD.  167 

by  providing  both,  and  the  system  has  been  an  overwhelming  / 
success,  though  in  reality  it  partakes  more  of  the  nature  of  ' 
joint   stock  ownership  than   co-operative  production.*     In 

*  The  Mitchell-Hay  Co-operative  Manufacturing  Society,  of  Rochdale, 
Lancashire,  made  the  first  venture  in  1854.  A  period  of  eleven  years 
elapsed  before  it  was  repealed,  and  then,  in  iS65,the  Sun  Mill  was  stalled 
at  Oldham,  in  the  same  county,  the  capital  being  raiNcd  among  the  mill- 
hands  by  the  sale  of  shares  having  a  par  vnlue  of  525.00  each.  In  1867 
another  concern  was  organized  by  the  same  method,  followed  by  many 
more  in  the  succeeding  ten  years,  so  that  l)y  1882  seventy-one  companies, 
with  a  i)aid-up  capital  of  ;S27,8o6,ioo,  were  in  flourishing  operation. 

These  enterprises  were  started  under  peculiarly  favorable  circumstances. 
The  iKjpulaiion  of  Oldham  was  ihi  rouglily  familiar  with  the  principles  of 
co-operative  distribution  and  also  conversant  with  every  detail  of  cotton 
mnnufaciuring,  and  in  addition  to  these  qualifications  it  had  the  further 
indispensable  requisites  of  industry  and  temperance,  together  with  a  pru- 
dence that  has  long  been  noted  in  all  the  neighbormg  t«)wns.  The  efl'ect 
of  placing  these  industrial  opportunities  vfitliin  reach  of  a  class  that  was 
not  only  ready  but  able  to  use  them  has  been  forcibly  described  by  a 
clever  writer  in  the  "Annual  of  the  Co  operative  Wholesale  Society " 
for  18S4: 

"The  daily  discussions  which  take  place  among  the  shareholders  as  to 
why  dividends  are  small  or  otherwise  have  led  almost  every  intelligent 
operative  to  become  more  economical  with  material,  more  industrious,  and 
to  see  what  effect  his  individual  effoits  have  upon  the  material  produced. 
The  cotton  trade  could  not  in  these  days  be  conducted  at  all,  if  misman- 
aged so  wastefully  as  was  customary  before  the  sjnnning  companies  were 
e-tablished.  Profits  now  are  not  calculated  by  \d.  or  2d.  per  pound  on  the 
yarn,  as  formerly ;  much  less  than  half  these  rates  are  now  welcome  and 
realize  good  dividends.  The  competition  between  the  managers  of  one 
company  and  those  of  another,  and  between  the  directors  of  different 
companies,  and  the  pride  which  each  body  of  shareholders  takes  in  its 
own  mill  is  constantly  leading  to  improvements  in  machinery  and  economy 
in  every  kind  of  manufacture,  so  that  it  is  almost  impossible  for  the  man- 
agement of  any  mill  owned  by  workingmen  to  be  seriously  defective  fi't 
any  length  of  time.  Almost  the  entire  population  of  wage-receivers  and 
shopkeejTcrs  carry  on  the  spinning  business  in  Oldham.  Women  are  ad- 
mitted as  well  as  men,  and  attend  the  quarterly  meetings.  Probably 
90  i^er  cent,  of  the  shareholders  have  equal  voles;  there  is  no  jTopeily 
qualificatic^n,  except  in  a  few  concerns  principally  promoted  by  the  middle 
classes.  The  number  of  shares  held  by  a  sharehohlerneither  helps  nor 
hinders  his  election  to  a  directorship ;  generally  speaking  his  knowledge 
of  the  trade  and  the  confidence  placed  in  him  governs  his  election.  'I'he 
buyers,  salesmen,  or  managers  of  one  mill  are  frequently  directors  of 
another  mill,  and  find  at  the  latter  that  their  previous  directors  are  now 
their  servants.  We  need  scarcely  say  that  the  result  of  this  is  that  di- 
rectors aad  workmen  consider  themselves  equal  and  treat  each  other  as 
equals.  There  is  no  town  in  Lancashire  where  as  much  average  wages 
are  earned  per  week  as  in  Oldham,  although  there  are  other  towns  paying 
as  high  rate  per  pound  for  the  work  done.  Still  this  saving  of  wages,  and 
making  and  saving  of  profits,  does  not  lead  the  working  classes  to  seek 


168  CO-OPERATIVE   UNION. 

1884  the  co-operative  societies  of  England  operating  on  this 
basis  comprised  355  spinning  companies  alone,  and  these  with 
their  kindred  associations  are  bound  together  in  a  co-operative 
union,  which  meets  annually  for  the  discussion  of  all  matters 
pertaining  to  their  interests. 

The  declared  principles  and  objects  of  this  confederation 
deserve  to  be  widely  known.  The  preamble  to  what  we 
should  term  its  constitution  says:  *'  This  Union  is  formed  to 
promote  the  practice  of  truthfulness,  justice  and  economy  in 
production  and  exchange  : 

"  I.  By  the  abolition  of  all  false  dealings,  either  by  repre- 
senting any  article  produced  or  sold  to  be  other  than  what  it 
is  known  to  the  producer  or  vendor  to  be,  or  by  concealing 
from  the  purchaser  any  fact  known  to  the  vendor,  material  to 
be  known  by  the  purchaser,  to  enable  him  to  judge  of  the 
value  of  the  articles  purchased. 

**  2.  By  conciliating  the  conflicting  interests  of  the  capi- 
talist, the  worker,  and  the  purchaser,  through  an  equitable 
division  among  them  of  the  fund  commonly  known  as  profit. 

"  3.  By  preventing  the  waste  of  labor  now  caused  by  un- 
regulated competition." 

This  is  certainly  a  stronger  recognition  of  the  duty  of  ab- 
solute equity,  and  a  more  decided  attempt  to  carry  the  teach- 
ings of  the  gospel  into  the  factory  and  the  mart  than  has 
hitherto  been  made.  For  the  old  legal  maxim  ''caveat 
emptor  "  it  substitutes  perfect  honesty  between  buyer  and 
seller;  the  usual  method  of  giving  labor  as  little  as  possible 


less  enjoyment  and  care  only  for  saving.  The  Derbyshire  hills  are  perhaps 
belter  known  and  enjoyed  by  these  Oldham  shareholders  than  by  the 
Derbyshire  residents  themselves;  their  holiday  trips  extend  to  London, 
the  lakes  of  Cumberland  and  Westmoreland,  North  Wales,  Paris,  and 
other  places  on  the  Continent Yet  no  operatives  are  more  indus- 
trious during  w^orking  hours— ^-industrious  not  from  compulsion,  but  from 
choice — than  these  Oldham  operatives.  There  are  few  towns  where  the 
temperance  party  is  more  respected,  and  probably  none  in  which  the  bulk 
of  the  workmen  spend  less  upon  hurtful  indulgences,  Considering  their 
means,  than  they  do." 

In  1884  the  net  annual  profits  of  seventy-one  Oldham  joint  stock  mills 
was  ;gi,369,68o,  or  about  <^yi  per  cent,  on  a  paid-up  capital  of  ^14,882,780. 


PROFIT-SHARING.  100 

out  of  profit  is  replaced  by  a  proportionate  distribution  of 
wliat  each  has  justly  earned,  and  the  destructive  and  unneces- 
sary competition  which  reduces  profits  is  superseded  by  an 
organized  effort  to  keep  them  at  a  fair  medium.  If  these 
principles  are  to  be  taken  as  auguries  of  the  new  develop- 
ment, they  indicate  that  with  it  there  will  also  be  evolved  a 
higher  type  of  truth  and  probity,  of  regard  for  the  interests 
of  others  as  well  as  the  interests  of  self,  and  these  are  the 
best  certificates  of  real  progress  that  industrialism  can  ex- 
hibit. 

This  mode  of  profit-sharing  by  joint  stock  ownership  is 
one  that  is  always  open  to  thrift.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to 
combine  the  functions  of  employe  and  stockholder  in  the 
same  establishment,  but  of  course  unless  that  is  done  there  is 
no  distinction  between  the  holding  of  shares  in  a  joint  stock 
enterprise  and  any  other  form  of  active  capital ;  for  in  both 
cases  profit  is  sought  from  secondary  labor.  And  although 
the  effect  of  ownership  is  good,  it  cannot  be  said  to  solve  even 
remotely  the  question  of  equitable  distribution.  Its  chief 
use  is  as  an  educative  force.  It  interests  the  stockholder  in 
both  factors  of  production.  It  brings  within  his  observation 
many  matters  pertaining  to  social  and  industrial  economy  of 
which  he  would  otherwise  be  in  ignorance.  He  learns  some- 
thing of  the  employer's  perplexities,  and  understands  the  fiill 
meaning  of  bills  payable,  falling  markets,  rising  staples,  bad 
debts,  changes  of  tariff  and  foreign  competition.  It  presents 
to  him  some  of  the  causes  of  success  and  failure,  the  diffi- 
culties of  management,  the  competitions  of  capital ;  and  thus 
his  views  are  broadened  on  one  side  and  modified  on  the 
other.  Yet  all  this  is  only  a  neutralization.  It  gives  labor 
no  distinct,  direct,  substantial  and  conjunctive  interest  with 
capital  in  daily  toil,  and  it  is  in  such  conjunction,  as  far  as 
our  little  knowledge  can  predict,  that  the  speediest  possi- 
bility of  an  affinity  between  the  elements  of  capital  and 
labor,  between  the  golden  rule  and  industry,  between  prac- 
tical Christianity  and  the  productive  powers  is  to  be  found. 

A  history  of  that  form  of  productive  co-operation  which  is 


170  PROFIT-SHARING. 

generally  understood  by  the  terms  "profit-sharing"  or  ''in- 
dustrial partnership"  would  simply  be  a  lengthy  description 
of  well-known  industrial  experiments,  differing  largely  in  de- 
tail, but  agreeing  in  the  general  idea  of  allotting  the  workman 
a  share  of  the  profits  in  addition  to  his  wages.  The  only 
new  facts  that  have  been  recently  adduced  on  the  subject  are 
a  confirmation  of  its  applicability  to  all  kinds  of  industrial 
pursuits,  the  slow  but  steady  acceptance  of  its  principles  by 
capitalist-manufacturers  in  Europe  and  in  the  United  States, 
and  the  growing  consensus  of  sociologists,  employers,  laborers 
and  divines  that  our  industrial  system  must  ultimately  de- 
velop into  this  form.* 

In  Mr.  Sedley  Taylor's  book  on  ''Profit  Sharing,"  more 
than  one  hundred  instances  are  given  of  the  success  that  has 
attended  this  method  of  co-operation  on  the  European  conti- 

*  "  Co-operation  has  been  urged  as  the  only  satisfactory  sohition  of 
the  labor  problem;  and  there  can  be  no  d()ul)t  that  in  the  one  form  or 
other  it  will  yet  be  the  predominating  influence  in  the  production  and 
distribution  of  economic  goods," — Professor  Ely  in  "The  Labor  Prob- 
lem," edited  by  Wm.  E.  Barnes. 

"  What  is  known  as  industrial  copartnership,  involving  profit-sharing 
and  embodying  all  the  vitality  there  is  in  the  principle  of  co  operation, 
offers  a  practical  way  of  producing  goods  on  a  basis  at  once  just  to  capital 
and  to  labor,  and  one  which  brings  out  the  best  moral  elements  of  the 
capitalist  and  the  workman." — Mr,  Carroll  D.  Wright,  *'  First  Annual  Re- 
port of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor,"  1886,  page  280. 

"  The  wage-laborer  ought  to  have  not  only  the  market  rate  of  wages, 
under  competition,  but  a  stipulated  share  in  the  profits  of  business.  He 
ought  to  be  identified  in  interest  with  his  employer;  and  he  must  be  before 
there  is  any  peace  between  them.  The  system  of  profit-sharing  or  indus- 
trial partnership  saves  and  enlarges  the  gains  of  private  enterprise,  and 
permits  the  workman  to  participate  in  them.  There  is  good  reason  to 
hope  that  this  simple  readjustment  of  the  economical  relations  of  employer 
and  laborer  would  put  a  new  face  upon  industrial  society.  Peace  would 
take  the  place  of  strife,  confidence  of  distrust,  hope  of  despair.  The  effi- 
cacy of  labor  would  be  promoted,  and  the  gains  of  civilization  for  all 
classes  indefinitely  increased." — "  Applied  Christianity,"  Washington 
Gladden,  pages  96-98, 

"  A  question  arises  here,  whether  in  some  ulterior,  perhaps  some  not 
far  distant  stage  of  this  'Chivalry  of  Labor,'  your  master- workman  may 
not  find  it  possible  and  needful  to  grant  to  his  workers  permanent  in- 
terest in  his  enterprise  and  theirs  ?  So  that  it  becomes  in  practical  re- 
suit  what  in  essential  fact  and  justice  it  ever  is,  a  joint  enterprise;  all  men, 
from  the  chief  master  down  to  the  lowest  overseer  and  operator,  economi- 
cally as  well  as  loyally  concerned  for  it." — Carlyle, 


PROFIT-SHARTNQ.  171 

nent,*  from  its  inception  in  1842  by  the  famous  experiment 
of  the  Parisian  house  painter,  Leclaire.  to  its  extrcne  devel- 
opment by  M.  Godin  in  his  equally  famous  social  palace  at 
Guise.  The  Maison  Leclaire  has  now  been  in  existence  for 
forty-five  years,  and  since  1871  the  benefit  of  participation  in 
profit  has  been  extended  to  those  who  work  for  even  a  single 
day.  These  bonuses  have  varied  from  12  to  18  i)er  cent,  on 
the  amount  of  wages  earned,  with  a  general  average  of  15  per 
cent.,  and  in  addition  to  this  material  advantage,  20  years  of 
service  and  the  attainment  of  the  age  of  50  ensures  a  life-pen- 
sion of  $200  per  annum.  The  same  amount  is  also  paid  at 
death,  the  money  being  provided  by  a  segregation  of  a  por- 
tion of  the  profits  to  the  "  Mutual  Aid  Society,"  which  as  a 
sleeping  partner  owns  one-half  of  the  $80,000  which  consti- 
tutes the  capital  of  the  concern.  M.  Leclaire  was  able  to  say 
almost  as  soon  as  he  had  inaugurated  his  plan  that  the  in- 
creased earnings  of  his  employes  was  not  an  abstraction  from 
the  profits  of  capital,  but  a  legitimate  result  of  hard  work, 
greater  care  of  materials  and  industrial  zeal.  He  thus  became 
a  sharer  in  the  gain  of  his  workmen,  and  that  unconsidered 
factor,  society  at  large,  must  also  have  been  silently  benefited 
to  quite  an  appreciable  extent  by  a  satisfaction  of  the  claims 
of  labor  and  the  consequent  substitution  of  content  for  antag- 
onism. "  I  am  the  humble  disciple  of  him  who  has  told  us 
to  do  to  others  what  we  would  have  others  do  to  us,  and  to 
love  our  neighbor  as  ourselves ;  it  is  in  this  sense  that  1  desire 
to  remain  a  Christian  until  my  last  breath,"  f  wrote  Edme 
Jean  Leclaire  upon  his  death-bed ;  and  his  applicability  of 
this  rule  to  what  has  been  considered  the  most  difficult  of 
practical  problems  again  illustrates  how  readily  the  Christian 
ethics  blend  and  harmonize  with  commercial  interests,  and 
how  easily  they  can  adjust  the  seemingly  conflicting  claims  of 
classes  in  a  manner  acceptable  to  all. 

It  was  the  absence  of  equity  in  distributing  the  results  of 

♦  Over  fifty  French   firms  now  share  profits  with  employes   (August,!* 
1887),  including  tlie  Hon  Mnrche,  of  Paris.  H 

I  Quoled  in  '•  Applied  Christianity,"  page  99. 


172  godin's  familistere. 

capital  and  labor  that  first  drew  M.  Godin's  attention  when  a 
workman,  to  the  crudities  of  the  industrial  system.  *'  Supply 
and  demand,"  he  wrote  in  1870,  *  '*  the  inexorable  and  heart- 
less law  of  commerce,  often  gave  me,  when  I  had  accomplished 
a  work  that  procured  the  master  exaggerated  profits,  wages 
that  barely  sufficed  for  the  necessities  of  life,  and  at  other 
times  higher  wages  for  labor  affording  little  profit  to  the  em- 
ployer." In  seeking  a  remedy  for  these  conditions  he  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  it  must  be  discovered  in  a  conciliation 
of  interests,  and  that  society  needed  strengthening  by  giving 
labor  a  larger  ])ortion  of  its  industrial  exertions.  But  with  a 
vision  born  of  enlarged  sympathy,  he  saw  that  beyond  this  it 
^  was  necessary  to  foster  social  relations  by  converting  individ- 
1  ual  into  collective  efi"ort,  and  that  industrial  association  could 
(  thus  be  made  an  available  power  for  social  development.  He 
therefore  combined  his  workmen  into  a  social  as  well  as  an 
industrial  partnership,  forming  of  them  one  large  family  in 
community  of  interest  with  the  employer  and  with  each 
other. 

So  much  has  been  written  about  this  Associated  Home, 
where  1500  people  living  under  one  roof  as  one  household 
are  enabled  by  a  unity  of  purpose  to  enjoy  advantages  other- 
wise unattainable,  that  the  wonder  excited  by  its  social  fea- 
tures overpowers  the  interest  in  its  industrial  aspect.  Yet  it 
is  as  an  experiment  in  co-operative  production  that  the  in- 
terest chiefly  centres;  for  however  successful  the  Familistere 
has  been  it  is  only  a  triumph  in  the  easier  field  of  distributive 
co-operation,  where  success  has  long  since  been  assured,  when 
the  conditions  necessary  to  obtain  it  were  obeyed. f 

*  "Social  Solutions,"  by  M.  Godin  (English  translation),  page  ii. 

•j-  "  To  every  member  of  that  human  family  is  secured  from  birth  to  death 
the  equivalent  of  riches  :  in  childhood  all  have  equal  chances  of  physical, 
mental,  and  moral  development;  the  fruit  of  every  man's  labor  is  secured 
to  him  through  mutual  service  rendered;  study  and  recreation  are  within 
the  reach  of  all,  for  the  joy  of  life  is  not  crushed  out  of  their  existence; 
in  sickness  there  is  all  needful  help  at  hand  ;  and  old  age  finds  the  workers 
living  in  honorable  independence.  There,  too,  the  freedom  of  all  is  en- 
larged; bolts  and  bars  unneeded,  because  all  have  learned  to  respect  the 
rights  of  others,  consequently  flowers  and  even  ripe  fruit  are  exempt  from 


173 

To  describe  in  detail  the  method  of  profit-sharing  adopted 
by  M.  Godin  would  require  many  pages,  and  the  plan  is  too 
complicated  for  outline.  The  management  of  the  iron-works 
was  vested  in  a  committee  of  workmen  under  the  superintend- 
ence of  the  founder,  although  the  capital  of  the  concern 
($1,320,000)  was  at  the  time  of  his  death  gradually  passing 
to  his  work  people.  In  five  years  the  profits  amounted  to 
more  than  $1,000,000,  of  which  $66,000  went  to  M.  Godin 
as  Director,  $201,000  as  interest  at  5  per  cent,  on  his  capi- 
tal, and  the  remainder,  $756,000  (after  deducting  payment 
to  individual  stockholders),  in  varying  proportions  to  the 
laboring  members  in  accordance  with  their  classification. 
By  the  articles  of  association,  M.  Godin  retained  the  right  of 
appointing  his  successor  for  life,  it  being  presumed  that  before 
this  succession  terminates  the  entire  establishment,  industrial 
and  social,  will  have  become  the  property  of  the  operatives. 
Those  to  whom  this  trust  will  eventually  be  confided  are  now 
little  children,  surrounded  by  the  purest  influences  that  thought 
can  devise.  Their  lives  are  the  realization  of  the  conditions 
laid  down  by  an  earnest  writer*  as  a  necessity  for  the  solution 
of  our  economic  problems,  viz.  :  "  industrial  education  for 
the  children  of  to-day  ;  co-operation  as  the  end  to  be  attained 
by  the  workers  into  which  the  children  will  grow."  If  these 
coming  men  and  women  are  able  to  carry  out  M.  Godin's 
principles  of  social  democracy  and  associate  industry,  if  they 
can  demonstrate  to  another  generation  that  the  material  pros- 
perity of  the  capitalist  is  not  affected  by  his  alliance  with  labor, 
and  that  labor  can  make  a  blessing  of  toil  without  infringe- 
ment on  the  property  rights  of  the  wealthy  and  without  ren- 

juvenile  depredation  in  the  extensive  pleasure-grounds  that  are  the  prop- 
erty of  all.  The  ori)jinal  sole  proprietor,  without  impoverishing  himself, 
has  enriched  all,  and  that  too  without  patronage  to  the  workers  or  help 
from  the  state ;  and  moreover  we  hear  no  cry  there  about  *  helpless  women 
an  1  children,'  because  men  and  women  are  helping  one  another." — 
"Obstacles  to  Industrial  Reform,"  paper  read  by  Miss  Mary  II.  Hart, 
"Industrial  Reform  C«mference,"  page  331. 

For  an  illustrated  descripiiou  of  the  Familist^re,  see  Harpers^  Maga- 
tinf.  Vol.  XLIV,  page  701. 

*  Mrs.  Helen  Campbell. 


174  SUCCESSFUL    PROFIT-SHARING. 

dering  a  toiling  life  the  equivalent  of  dirt,  discomfort,  and 
ignorance,  the  question  of  social  and  industrial  progress  will 
have  been  answered  for  millions  of  others  besides  themselves, 
and  the  answer  will  furnish  the  key  to  many  another  hidden 
solution,  political  and  religious,  as  well  as  industrial. 

Profit-sharing  has  been  successfully  introduced  into  a  large 
variety  of  manufacturing  industries,*  into  agriculture,t  and 
the  administration  of  such  public  enterprises  as  railroads 
(American  and  foreign),  canals,  banks  and  insurance  offices. 
The  Paris  and  Orleans  Railway  Company  has  divided  a  cer- 
tain percentage  of  net  receipts  among  its  staff  for  many  years, 
and  the  directors  express  themselves  well  satisfied  with  the 
results.  The  Suez  Canal  Company  provides  in  its  statutory 
organization  for  a  distribution  of  2  per  cent,  of  the  profits 
annually  among  participating  employes,  and  in  1883  this  sum 
amounted  to  $125,000.  '*  We  have  been  in  a  position  to 
receive  proofs  of  the  zeal  and  devotion  of  our  agents,"  says 
M.  de  Lesseps,  referring  to  this  division,  **and  have  only  to 
congratulate  ourselves  on  what  we  have  done."  J  Similarly 
the  managing  director  of  the  joint-stock  company  of  Billou 
&  Isaac,  musical  box  manufacturers,  Geneva,  Switzerland, 
wrote  in  December,  1884,  *' We  have  so  identified  ourselves 
with  participation  that  we  no  longer  understand  industry 
carried  on  without  the  participation  of  this  beneficent  prin- 
ciple," and  after  enumerating  its  advantages  he  concludes 

*  This  list  comprises  iron  smelting,  type  and  iron  foundries,  cotton 
spinning,  flour  milling,  mining,  quarrying  and  cabinet-making  ;  the  manu- 
facture of  woolens,  tools,  paper,  weighing  scales,  boots  and  shoes,  tin- 
ware, musical  instruments  and  chemicals,  soap,  card-board  and  cigarettes; 
the  business  of  dry-goods  dealing,  stock  broking  and  bookselling,  printing, 
engraving  and  publishing,  house  painting  and  plumbing;  and  every  month 
adds  to  the  number. 

f  Co-operaticn  has  been  successfully  applied  to  wine  and  fruit  produc- 
tion in  California.  An  Italian-Swiss  colony  has  had  1352  acres  of  choice 
land  under  cultivation  for  the  last  six  years.  Its  grape  crop  this  year 
(1888)  will  exceed  looo  tons  and  next  year  2000 — equal  to  3,ooo,ocx) 
gallons  of  wine.  A  co-operative  farm  at  Delavan,  Minnesota,  has  re- 
turned a  dividend  of  10  per  cent,  for  several  years. 

X  This  and  several  of  the  following  statements  are  collated  from  a  paper 
on  Profit-sharing  by  Mr.  Sedley  Taylor,  read  at  the  Industrial  Remunera- 
tion Conference,  London,  1885. 


fiUCCESSFUL    PROFIT-SHARINO.  175 

with  the  observation  tliat  "  the  sliare  in  profits  which  wc  allot 
to  our  workmen  is  no  sacrifice  to  our  house,  since  we  find  it 
made  up  for  by  the  good  quality  of  the  work  obtained  and 
the  economies  of  time  and  materials,  a  source  which  yields 
incontestable  surplus  profits."  * 

A  thorough  confirmation  of  this  important  point  is  afforded 
by  many  other  employers.  **  I  am  fiiUy  persuaded,"  writes  M. 
Marquet,  the  managing  partner  of  the  Maison  Leclaire,  "  that 
if  we  had  not  had  profit-sharing  our  balance  sheet  (for  1883) 
would  have  shown  a  diminution  at  least  equal  to  the  reduc- 
tion imposed  ;  whereas  instead  of  that  we  have  obtained  an 
enhanced  result."  |  The  managing  director  of  a  leading 
French  insurance  company  has  declared  as  the  result  of  thirty 
years*  experience  that  profit-sharing  is  an  unvarying  success, 
**  excellent  for  the  employes  and  excellent  for  the  company," 
and  in  testifying  before  a  committee  appointed  by  the  French 
Minister  of  the  Interior,  in  1883,  M.  Laroche-Joubert,  the 
proprietor  of  a  large  paper  mill  at  Angouleme,  said,  "It  is 
not  to  be  supposed  that  the  master  has  in  consequence  of, 
adopting  participation  given  away  a  part  of  his  profits."  M. 
Besselievre,  the  owner  of  an  important  calico  manufactory, 
also  told  the  committee  that  "  it  is  to  the  interest  of  the  em- 
ployer to  take  his  workmen  into  association.  The  measure 
will  cost  him  nothing ;"  a  statement  which  coincides  with 
that  made  by  Messrs.  Charles  A.  Pillsbury  &  Co.,  of  Minne- 
apolis, Minnesota:  **We  doubt  very  much  whether  we  have 
lost  anything  by  the  extra  money  we  have  distributed  among 
our  men,  ...  we  think  we  get  the  very  best,  most  loyal, 
and  faithful  help  in  the  world,  and  by  inducing  our  old  men 
to  stay  by  us  that  we  are  getting  back  largely,  if  not  entirely, 

*  The  tes'imony  of  their  workmen  is  equally  emphatic.  "  We  are  con- 
vinced that,  admitted  generally,  pariicipation  will  be  a  powerful  means  of 
breaking  down  the  harriers  between  masters  and  men,  and  of  thus  solving, 
in  a  certain  measure,  the  social  question." 

f  Referring  to  an  order  of  the  municipal  authorities  advancing  the 
wages  of  painters  5  centimes  per  hour,  without  any  increase  of  the  em- 
ployers' compensation. 


176  SUCCESSFUL    PROFIT-SHABING. 

all  we  pay  out  to  them."  *  Mr.  Nelson,  of  the  N.  O.  Nelson 
Manufacturing  Company,  of  St.  Louis,  wrote  (March,  1887) 
that  after  one  year's  experience  of  profit-sharing  the  experiment 
has  been  an  entire  success ;  and  in  the  official  report  of  the  pro- 
gress of  the  Social  Palace  of  Guise  (March  30,  1884)  an  em- 
phatic declaration  is  made  that  "  the  portion  given  to  labor 
has  been  obtained  without  sacrificing  the  remuneration  of 
capital." 

As  a  practical  business  movement  therefore,  and  entirely 
divested  from  moral  principles,  the  results  have  been  so  pro- 
fitable as  to  commend  them  to  the  careful  consideration  of 
all  employers  who  wish  to  increase  the  returns  from  their 
capital  and  administrative  skill  without  subtracting  from  the 
earnings  of  labor.  It  is  true,  as  Mr.  Sedley  Taylor  wisely 
says,  that  profit-sharing  and  industrial  partnership,  **  valuable 
as  they  are  in  themselves,  constitute  no  self-acting  panacea," 
and  that  "  their  best  fruits  can  be  reaped  only  by  men  who 
feel  that  life  does  not  consist  in  abundance  of  material  posses- 
sions, who  regard  stewardship  as  nobler  than  ownership,  and 
who  see  in  the  ultimate  outcome  of  all  true  work,  issues  reach- 
ing beyond  the  limits  of  the  present  dispensation,  and  who 
act  faithfully  and  strenuously  on  these  beliefs  ;  "  yet  for  those 
who  seek  in  their  dealings  the  lowest  plane  of  profit  and  loss, 
it  affords  a  method  by  which  they  can  reconcile  their  desires 
without  conflicting  with  the  other  elements  of  production, 
and  without  increasing  that  disparity  of  condition  between 
rich  and  poor  which  is  the  most  startling  feature  of  modern 
civilization. 

Co-operation  has  been  defined  as  the  practical  application 
of  Christianity  to  the  purposes  of  trade  and  industry.  Its 
desire  is  to  establish  equity  as  the  commercial  basis  of  ex- 
change, and  replace  the  sword-drawn  system  of  unnecessary 
competition  by  one  that  will  permit  and-  encourage  fraternity. 


*  It  is  understood  that  this  firm  has  distributed  to  its  employes  during 
the  last  three  years  about  jg  100,000,  in  addition  to  the  payment  of  the 
highest  prevailing  wages. 


SUCCESSFUL    PROFIT-SHARING.  177 

It  is  socialism  divested  of  impossibilities,  separated  from  its 
dangerous  elements  and  stripped  of  its  false  theories.  It  is 
the  consistent  evolution  of  industry  in  conformity  with  pro- 
gress, tending  to  tlie  conservation  of  human  and  natural 
forces  in  the  direction  of  larger  sympathies,  greater  content 
and  lessened  social  divergence.  It  substitutes  peace  for  war, 
and  from  unsympathetic  units  generates  affinity,  rich  with 
kindliness,  warm  with  charity,  and  fragrant  with  religion's 
sweetest  fruit,  good  deeds.! 

(Herein  then  are  the  elements  of  unity,  and  capital  seeking 
how  it  may  best  discharge  its  obligations  to  toil,  and  toil 
anxious  to  reconcile  its  interests  with  capital,  can  read  the 
answer  to  their  quest  in  that  now  familiar  word  rei)lete  with 
such  significance  of  allied  power.  **  Profit-sharing,"  says  a 
late  writer,  **  is  simply  the  incorporation  of  good-will  into 
the  industrial  system  as  a  working  force;  and  the  scores  of 
great  companies  on  the  continent  of  Europe  that  have  won 
magnificent  success  on  tliis  basis  prove  it  to  be  no  visionary 
scheme,  but  one  of  the  solidest  of  accomplished  facts."  *  The 
long  separation  that  commenced  when  man  enslaved  man 
ends  here.  The  parallel  warfare  that  runs  through  all  history 
merges  here.  The  cry  from  the  pyramids,  from  the  ami)lu- 
tiieatre,  from  the  field,  loses  its  echo  here.  Tiie  once  im- 
passable distance  between  Pharaoh  and  his  brickmakers,  Cali- 
gula and  his  lion-destined  slaves,  Louis  the  Well-Beloved 
and  his  starving  peasantry,  is  annihilated  here,  and  in  place 
there  is  a  mingling  from  which  has  proceeded  and  will 
proceed  an  enlarged  and  active  humanity,  quick  to  recog- 
nize that  we  are  all  equal  in  the  fat»herhood  of  God,  in  the 
heirship  of  the  present  and  in  the  possibilities  of  the  coming 
ages.J 

♦  "Applied  Chiisiianily,"  Washington  Gladden,  page  177. 
12 


CHAPTER  IX. 

INDUSTRIAL    SOLUTIONS. 

"  Whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatsoever  things  a?-e  honest,  whatsoever 
things  ore  just,  whatsoever  things  a7e  pure,  whatsoever  things  are  hively, 
whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report;  if  f/ie7-e  he  any  virtue,  and  if  there 
be  any  praise,  think  on  these  things." — /'////.  4  :  8. 

"If  all  employers  were  as  thoughtful  of  the  general  welfare  of  those 
they  employ  as  they  are  now  eager  to  get  the  most  out  of  them;  if  all 
producers  were  as  anxious  for  good,  sound,  and  useful  production  as  ihey 
are  for  paying  production;  if  those  who  lend  money  consiilered  not  only 
the  security  and  the  interest,  but  the  purpose  for  which  the  money  was 
sought;  if  those  who  develop  new  works  thought  more  of  the  workers 
than  possible  profits,  industry  would  not  be  what  we  see  it.  In  other 
words,  the  solution  of  the  industrial  problem  is  a  moral,  social,  and 
religious  question." — Frederick  Harrison. 

From  some  of  the  statistics  presented  on  a  previous  pnge  it 
will  be  seen  that  many  industries  yield  all  that  is  possible  to 
the  wage-worker  even  with  co-operation,  and  that  the  only 
immediate  way  of  increasing  earnings  would  be  by  adding  to 
the  selling  price  of  the  product.  Extra  efficiency  might  raise 
wages  a  little,  but  with  capital  content  to  receive  5  per  cent. 
O-s  a  return  from  industrial  investment,  there  is  not  much 
room  for  further  advance.*  The  only  recourse  for  the  wage- 
receiver  in  such  cases  is  to  make  the  most  of  earnings,  by 
turning  them  into  better  value,  and  if  he  can  effect  a  saving 
of  8  or  10  per  cent,  in  the  purchase  of  necessaries  it  is  in 
effect  that  amount  added  to  incou.e. 

The  British  and  Continental  workmen  understand  this,  and 
thus  it  is  that  distributive  co-operation  has  been  such  a  suc- 


*  "At  the  present  lime  any  safe  business  will  attract  all  the  cnpital  re- 
quired in  it,  which  will  yield  6  per  cent,  net  profit,  and  also  4  per  cent, 
for  such  a  sinking  fund  or  reserve  as  is  necessary  for  the  repairs  and  main- 
tenance of  the  capital." — Edward  Atkinson,  in  the  Century,  April,  1887. 
(178) 


WAGES  AND  EARNINGS.  179 

cess  with  them.*  In  the  northern  manufacturing  counties  of 
England  it  is  stated  that  one-fourth  of  the  town  population 
purchase  their  supplies  from  co-operative  stores,  and  that  in 
the  mining  counties  of  Durham  and  Northumberland  the 
proportion  applies  to  the  entire  population.  In  1886,  1356 f 
associations  making  returns  showed  a  membership  in  Great 
Britain  of  911,797,  and  reported  a  business  for  that  year  of 
more  than  $150,000,000,  from  wliich,  after  payment  of  about 
5  per  cent,  interest  on  capital  and  the  donation  of  some 
$85,000  for  educational  purposes,  they  were  enabled  to  divide 
a  profit  of  8  per  cent,  among  purchasers.  Since  1862  the 
enormous  sum  of  $162,333,000  has  been  returned  by  them  to 
members,  all  of  which  would  otherwise  have  gone  into  the 
hands  of  middlemen  and  been  lost  to  the  consumer. 

The  principle  of  distributive  co-operation  is  growing  very 
rapidly  in  the  British  isles,  an  average  of  more  than  one  new 
society  having  been  officially  registered  every  week  for  the 
past  eight  years.  From  1883  to  1886  the  membership  in- 
creased over  230,000,  and  as  each  member  represents  a  single 
family,  the  actual  addition  to  those  who  support  the  associa- 
tions is  considerably  more  than  a  million.    When  practicable, 


*  Mr.  Lloyd  Jones  has  summarized  in  a  forcible  manner  the  good 
results  these  societies  have  already  accomplished:  "The  cooperative 
organization  includes  about  two  and  a  half  millions  of  the  most  thouj^ht- 
fui  and  provident  of  the  Briiish  people.  They  have  removed  the  disad- 
vantages attending  the  ordinary  distributive  system  by  a  plan  of  their 
own,  and  this  in  a  limited  way  is  now  placing  in  their  hands  somethinjj 
over  two  millions  sterling  a  year  as  profit.  They  have  made  this  j^rofit 
because  they  have  found  the  way  to  use  their  own  capital,  made  fruitful 
by  their  own  consumption,  for  the  carrying  on  of  their  own  distributive 
business.  They  entertain  like  views  in  reference  to  productive  industry. 
They  have,  so  far  as  they  have  gone,  got  possession  of  the  instruments  of 
distrdjiition ;  and  as  they  find  their  own  capital,  the  profits  of  their  busi- 
ness belong  to  them.  They  have  carried  this  idea  to  a  certain  extent  into 
the  work  of  production,  and  with  such  results  that  they  become  day  by 
day  more  convinced  that,  as  time  passes  and  experience  increases,  and  a 
knowledge  of  the  best  principle  on  which  to  struggle  for  success  becomes 
developed  among  the  geneial  body  of  thcnr  members,  success  will  be 
found  as  practicable  in  production  as  in  distribution." — ••  Industrial  Re- 
muneration Conference,"  page  40. 

f  This  includes  sixty-six  societies  for  production,  which  were  not  seg- 
regated in  the  returns. 


180  DISTRIBUTIVE   CO-OPERATION. 

the  societies  manufacture  their  own  goods,  and  the  *'  whole- 
sale co-operative,"  from  which  most  of  the  supplies  are  pro- 
cured, owns  five  steamers,  has  purchasing-depots  in  Ireland, 
France,  and  the  United  States,  has  just  invested  ^400,000  in 
the  projected  Manchester  ship  canal,  and  publishes  a  weekly- 
newspaper  of  large  circulation.  No  attempt  is  made  by  the 
retail  associations  to  compete  with  private  dealers  by  under- 
selling; the  advantage  of  practically  unadulterated  articles, 
the  absence  of  misrepresentation,  and  a  return  to  the  pur- 
chaser of  nearly  the  total  net  profit  in  semi-annual  dividend 
being  of  themselves  sufficient  inducements  to  attract  custom. 
To  these  substantial  benefits  must  be  added  others  ''which  no 
statistics  can  adequately  portray,"  and  which,  though  in- 
tangible, have  had  a  moral  value  surpassing  the  material. 
Thus  it  has  discouraged  the  credit  system,  fraught  with  so 
much  evil  to  those  of  small  means.  It  has  stimulated  thrift 
and  self-reliance,  and  after  converting  waste  into  capital  has 
returned  it  to  the  class  who  were  most  in  need  of  it.  By 
promoting  union  for  a  common  and  wise  purpose  it  has  exer- 
cised an  educative  and  ethical  influence  that  must  make  the 
desideratum  of  productive  co-operation  nearer  attainment 
than  it  could  possibly  have  been  from  any  other  preliminary 
training,  and  it  has  taught  the  poor  how  much  their  physical 
and  social  elevation  is  dependent  on  self-exertion,  and  how 
powerful  they  can  become  through  association.  These  are 
great  results  from  such  an  unpretentious  beginning,  and  again 
serve  to  point  the  lesson  how  little  we  can  determine  the 
effect  of  minute  effort  when  circumstances  are  favorable  for 
its  development. 

There  is  no  apparent  reason  why  a  system  that  has  added 
one-tenth  or  one-twelfth  to  the  wage-receiver's  income  with- 
out any  trouble  on  his  part  should  not  be  as  successful  in 
some  of  our  cities,  as  in  Great  Britain,  Switzerland,  Denmark, 
and  Sweden.  We  certainly  cannot  afford  to  neglect  the  aid 
of  any  economic  devices,  whether  industrial  or  social,  that 
long  experience  has  shown  to  be  beneficial  under  analogous 
conditions  elsewhere,  and  in  co-operative  distribution  there 


TEMPERANCE.  181" 

is  a  splendid  and  almost  unoccupied  field  for  the  display  of 
those  qualities  of  adaptability  and  originality  which  are  so 
characteristic  of  Americans.* 

*'  No  one  who  knows  the  workingman,  so  to  speak,  at 
home,"  said  Mr.  Harrison,  in  discussing  the  subject  of 
** social  distress,"  '*can  doubt  how  great  an  advance  in 
well-being  and  independence  is  the  possession  of  a  little 
capital,  a  bit  of  land  however  small.  Only  those  who  do 
know  him  at  home  can  truly  judge  how  great  an  advance  it 
is.  The  workmen  of  such  cities  as  Roclidale,  Halifax,  Hud- 
dersfield,  Leeds,  Newcastle,  and  Oldliam,  where  the  unions, 
the  co-operative,  building,  and  benefit  societies  are  in  strong 
force,  are  in  an  altogether  different  world  from  that  of  the 
average  town  and  country  laborer,  who  on  a  Friday  niglit  is 
the  owner  at  most  of  a  few  shillings  and  five  pounds  worth  of 
old  furniture."  How  many  more  could  transport  themselves 
to  this  "different  world"  if  they  would  make  the  attempt 
can  be  discovered  from  the  statistics  of  liquor  selling  and 
intemperance.  Mr.  Harrison  estimates  that  only  5  per  cent, 
of  the  total  English  working  population  is  in  the  comfortable 
position  he  describes,  but  it  is  certainly  no  exaggeration  to 
say  that  this  number  could  be  trebled  within  five  years  by  a 
reduction  of  less  than  one-half  in  the  money  sj^ent  for  drink. 
\Jl'he  humblest  manual  labor  is  compatible  with  the  higliest 
moral  dignity,  though  it  is  the  motive  for  wliich  the  laborer 
works  that  dignifies  the  toil  and  not  the  labor  itself.  There 
is  no  dignity  in  a  man  working  hard  for  six  days  to  spend  his 
earnings  on  the  seventh  in  debauchery  or  selfish  gratification, 
wliile  a  neglected  wife  and  children  suffer  in  a  miserable 
dwelling.  But  if  the  worker  has  for  his  ambition  the  fencing 
of  his  home  from  poverty,  the  education  of  his  children,  and 


♦  A  strong  movement  was  made  a  few  years  ago  in  favor  of  distributive 
co-operation  by  the  grangers'  associations,  but  of  the  hundreds  of  stores 
then  started  nearly  all  have  retired.  New  England  has  been  the  mot 
congenial  field.  Tliere  were  in  August,  1887,  about  fifty-three  co-operative 
establish  me  nts  in  that  section  of  the  country,  doing  an  annual  bubiness 
exceeding  ;$2,ooo,cxx>. 


182  TEMPERANCE. 

the  general  fulfilment  of  his  duty  to  the  family,  then,  and 
only  then,  is  he  dignifying  his  labor,  and  no  matter  how 
menial  it  may  be,  is  adding  dignity  to  himself  and  to  the 
society  and  state  of  which  his  family  is  a  part. 

The  connection  between  poverty  and  intemperance  is  too 
obvious  to  require  the  slightest  enlargement.  That  the  ex- 
ceedingly wretched,  who  are  cut  off  from  all  enjoyment  and 
have  no  further  hope  in  life  except  to  seek  as  each  day  comes 
forgetfulness  of  their  many  miseries,  should  find  it  in  one  of 
the  few  animal  pleasures  left  to  them,  is  a  subject  more  for  pity 
than  declamation.  For  these  poor  creatures  social  solutions 
come  too  late.  Like  that  other  grand  army  of  outcasts  that 
treads  the  streets  at  night,  bedecked  in  allurement,  a  few  may 
here  and  there  be  snatched  from  the  abyss;  but  all  humani- 
tarian effort  has  so  far  failed  to  reach  the  majority  and  we  can 
only  leave  them  in  sorrow  to  One  who  will  righteously  judge 
with  mercy. 

For  those  who  create  their  own  poverty  by  a  persistent  in- 
dulgence in  drink  there  is  already  too  much  sympathy.  Mak- 
ing what  allowance  can  be  made  for  supposed  hereditary  ten- 
dencies and  the  temptations  of  good  fellowship,  the  fact  yet 
remains  that  except  in  a  very  few  cases  it  is  a  cultivated  vice, 
petted  and  nurtured  despite  the  warnings  with  which  every 
one  is  familiar  from  childhood,  and  allowed  to  grow  until, 
with  stealthy  strength,  it  becomes  a  tyrant.  There  is  little 
enough  of  sympathy  in  the  world  for  weakness  and  wrong- 
doing, yet  quite  too  much  for  this.  Let  condemnation  and 
denunciation  try  their  part ;  let  the  man  who  disregards  his 
duties  to  his  family  for  the  sake  of  his  own  indulgence  be 
shunned  in  the  workshop  and  on  the  street ;  let  society  put 
its  mark  of  disapprobation  as  strongly  on  these  as  it  wrong- 
fully does  on  those  who  in  a  fatal  moment  fall  from  virtue; 
let  it  be  considered  disgraceful  to  be  drunk,  disgraceful  to 
spend  money  in  drink  as  an  indulgent,  and  doubly  disgrace- 
ful to  shirk  the  responsibility  of  parentage  and  destroy  the 
home  by  the  slavery  of  liquor.  Great  Britain  annually  spends 
$750,000,000  on  intoxicants,  or  an  average  of  about  $18.00 


TEMPERANCE.  183 

for  every  man,  woman  and  child  on  its  islands.  It  has  been 
estimated  that  if  this  amount  could  be  applied  to  useful  pur- 
poses it  would  pay  the  national  bread  bill  more  than  twice 
over,  or  that  an  annual  surplus  of  $20,000,000  would  remain 
after  paying  the  house  rental  of  the  United  Kingdom,  and 
purchasing  all  the  woolen  and  cotton  goods  consumed  by  its 
inhabitants.  The  amount  wasted  on  liquor  in  the  United 
States  during  the  twelve  years  ending  1882  averaged  $860,- 
000,000  annually,*  or  about  $14.50  per  capita,  a  very  large 
l)ortion  of  which  inflicted  the  direst  social  injury  as  a  pro- 
ducer of  crime,  poverty,  insanity,  vice  and  disease.  If,  as 
previously  said,  therefore,  only  one-half  of  this  total  could  be 
devoted  to  proper  purposes  a  "different  world"  would 
speedily  come  to  others  besides  the  operative.  There  would 
be  more  social  elasticity,  healthier  moral  surroundings,  and  a 
general  increase  in  comfort  and  prosperity  as  marked  as  that 
which  exists  between  the  poles  of  any  opposites,  and  the 
poison  that  now  runs  through  the  system  of  nations  would  be 
displaced  by  a  wholesome  flow  that  would  invigorate  industry 
to  its  remotest  artery. 

*'  The  destruction  of  the  poor  is  their  poverty,"  said  Solo- 
mon. Yet  while  the  poor  elect  to  remain  poor,  who  can  help 
them  ?  There  is  a  very  large  class  of  men  belonging  to  the  ranks 
of  unskilled  labor  to  whom  the  utmost  economy  is  a  necessity. 
Having  neither  natural  nor  acquired  ability,  competition  has 
put  them  beyond  industrial  promotion  and  they  cannot  escape 
from  their  condition.  Yet.  without  thought  for  the  future, 
and  while  barely  able  to  earn  their  own  living,  they  have 
burdened  themselves  and  others  witli  wife  and  family,  and  so 
are  compelled  to  pass  their  lives  manyieagues  beyond  the  ' 
sterile  border  land  of  poverty.  Improvidence  literally  begets 
improvidence,  and  competition  is  intensified  in  the  classes  least 
able  to  compete,  thus  aggravating  every  form  of  social  dis- 
turbance.   By  taking  on  themselves  responsibilities  that  ought 


♦  The  expenditure  in  1886  is  estimated  by  the  Bureau  of  Statistics, 
Washington,  to  have  been  $700,000,000. 


184  TOO   EARLY   MARRIAGE. 

not  to  be  incurred  they  cast  on  the  community  half  the  duties 
of  parentage  and  furnish  the  largest  percentage  of  those  pre- 
datory recruits  who  so  tax  the  energies  of  reformatory  move- 
ments. "Were  there  no  drunkenness,  no  extravagance,  no 
reckless  multiplication,  social  miseries  would  be  trivial,"  says 
Herbert  Spencer.  **  Due  limitation  of  the  numbers  of  the 
community,"  wrote  John  Stuart  Mill,  '*  would  be  a  remedy 
for  many  existing  evils."  But  while  the  evils  of  drunken- 
ness and  extravagance  are  everywhere  condemned  in  fitting 
words,  there  is  a  diffidence  in  speaking  of  the  other  that  natu- 
rally arises  from  its  innate  delicacy,  though  the  bolder  course 
of  frankness  would  be  far  the  better  one. 

Marriage  and  paternity  ought  to  imply  something  more 
than  physical  maturity.  There  should  be  ability  to  support, 
clothe  and  educate  the  offspring;  a  home  in  its  true  sense  for 
its  tender  years,  and  all  the  moral  and  material  surroundings 
for  healthful  growth.  Yet  these  matters  are  rarely  considered, 
though  a  right  apprehension  of  them  would  very  largely  reduce 
the  ills  of  which  the  poor  so  bitterly  complain.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  natural  conditions  are  reversed,  and  a  large  family 
is  looked  upon  as  a  means  for  parental  support,  and  as  a  claim 
on  society  through  the  children.  It  is  perhaps  hopeless  to 
expect  any  direct  legal  restrictions  on  improvident  marriages, 
and  the  matter  is  surrounded  by  so  many  sentimental  and 
actual  difficulties,  that  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  social 
opinion  sufficiently  ripens  to  exercise  any  perceptible  re- 
straint; for  here  morality  and  prudence  seem  to  run  counter. 
A  little  can  be  done  though,  by  bringing  the  subject  under 
educational  influences  until  its  gravity  is  more  widely  appre- 
ciated, and  marriage,  with  its  entailed  obligations,  less  lightly 
entered  into  than  now.  The  marriage  laws  of  the  nation 
and  public  sentiment  on  marriage  need  thorough  correction, 
for  marriage  is  the  inception  of  every  social  and  industrial 
problem,  and  in  it  may  be  found  the  inception  of  many  social 
and  industrial  solutions. 

There  is  another  large  class  whose  steady  and  fixed  re- 
munerative employment  during  the  working  years  gives  them 


PROVIDENT   HABITS.  185 

abundant  opportunity  to  provide  for  tlie  future.  Thrift  would 
enable  them,  if  they  considered  tlie  object  worthy  of  attain- 
ment, to  take  on  themselves  the  functions  of  capitalists,  and 
like  the  Oldham  operatives  become  their  own  employers. 
All  honestly  acquired  capital,  be  it  large  or  small,  comes 
from  savings,  and  is  but  the  residue  over  expenditure.  If 
wage-earners  therefore  prefer  the  enjoyment  of  to-day  to  that 
self-denial  which  looks  forward  to  the  morrow  for  reward,  the 
best  institutions  can  avail  them  little,  because  they  refuse  the 
only  general  opportunity  that  can  be  offered  of  becoming 
capitalists.  **The  strongest  of  workers,"  says  an  eminent 
Frenchman,  **is  he  who  saves  for  the  sake  of  his  children," 
and,  it  may  be  added,  that  he  best  fulfils  his  duty  to  society 
when  he  fulfils  it  to  himself  and  family.  Frugality  is  the  first 
principle  of  all  self-help.  Waste  never  accomplished  any- 
thing. The  saving  man  is  the  independent  man.  He  can 
wait  for  seasons  and  occasions.  He  is  not  at  the  mercy  of  an 
arbitrary  employer.  He  can  transfer  his  labor  to  a  more  re- 
munerative field.  He  can  purchase  cheaper.  He  adds  to  his 
own  self-resi)ect,  and  feels  the  dignity,  unknown  to  thriftless- 
ness,  which  comes  from  a  consciousness  of  the  energy  at  his 
command. 

Waste  of  money  is  waste  of  power  in  its  most  concentrated 
form,  and  diligence  in  money-making  without  wisdom  in  its 
use  is  simply  a  loss  of  labor  to  the  laborer,  as  he  is  parting 
with  his  present  capital  and  neglecting  to  store  it  in  another 
shape  for  future  need.  It  is  earning  wages  "to  put  it  into  a 
bag  with  holes."  Improvidence  makes  him  the  sport  of  every 
adverse  wind,  and,  like  a  ship  without  rudder  or  ballast  on  a 
strong  sea,  he  is  driven  not  where  he  wills,  but  where  tlie 
winds  list.  Each  dollar  that  labor  can  save  lessens  the  dis- 
tance between  itself  and  capital.  A  dollar  in  the  bank  is  a 
day's  labor  at  interest,  a  day  gained  for  ease  when  the  mus- 
cles can  no  longer  respond  with  their  wonted  readiness,  a 
day's  holiday  for  the  autumn  of  life,  a  sack  of  flour  in  the 
granary,  and  a  little  sur])lus  of  present  strength  garnered  for 
the  time  of  weakness.     These  are  very  simple  truisms,  yet 


186  PROVIDENT  HABITS. 

when  workingmen  act  up  to  them  they  will  have  started  on 
the  high  road  that  all  earned  capital  has  previously  traversed, 
and  every  step  in  advance  lessens  the  inequality  between 
wage-payer  and  wage-earner.  The  duty  of  saving  involves 
neither  stint  nor  meanness,  but  only  such  curtailment  of  un- 
necessary expenditure  as  is  implied  in  rational  economy.  It 
is,  for  instance,  an  immediate  and  pressing  obligation,  though 
its  performance  may  entail  the  sacrifice  of  harmless  enjoy- 
ment, to  i)rovide  for  the  seasons  of  sickness,  and  that  inevi- 
table beyond  that  some  day  comes  to  all.*  There  are  few 
men  above  the  grade  of  common  laborer  who  cannot  do  this, 
since  co-operative  insurance  has  so  reduced  the  cost.  About 
^24.00  a  year  will  now  insure  a  provision  of  $2000  to  wife 
and  children  in  any  one  of  half  a  dozen  beneficiary  organiza- 
tions; a  further  sum  of  about  $12.00  will  provide  for  benefits 
during  sickness,  and  thus  for  70  cents  a  week  the  temporary 
incapacity  of  illness  and  one  of  the  most  dreaded  fears  for 
those  we  love  can  be  largely  guarded  against. 

It  is  useless  for  workingmen  to  talk  about  the  moral  ac- 
countability of  capital  while  they  disregard  such  self-obliga- 
tions as  these.  Indeed,  all  the  arguments  of  labor  in  behalf 
of  labor  are  weakened  by  the  want  of  prudence  and  control 
exhibited  by  the  unworthy  and  ignorant.  They  impose  on 
themselves  an  enormous  taxation  for  a  destructive  indulgence, 
they  rush  into  responsibilities  that  others  defer  until  their 
financial  position  is  more  firmly  established,  and  they  largely 
neglect  the  cultivation  of  those  provident  habits  which  are 
indispensable  to  accumulation.  Insurance  among  those  who 
can  afford  it  is  still  the  exception,  improvidence  among  our 
city  population  still  the  rule,  and  though  heedlessness  and 
waste  are  confined  to  no  class,  yet  these  faults  are  a  greater 
detriment  to  laboring  men  than  to  the  rest  of  the  com- 
munity. 


*  "  But  if  any  provide  not  for  his  own,  and  specially  for  those  of  his 
own  house,  he  hath  denied  the  faith,  and  is  worse  than  an  infidel." — 
I  Tim.  5:8. 


^^. 


LABOR   CAPITALIZED.  187 

So  wliile  it  is  the  unquestionable  right  of  labor  to  strive  by 
all  fair  means  for  betterment,  and  no  valid  argument  for  capi- 
tal to  point  to  opportunities  misused,  as  an  excuse  for  defer- 
ring justice,  it  is  only  human  nature  to  do  so.  How  largely 
the* mass  of  want,  anxiety  and  discontent  would  be  reduced 
if  the  surplus  earnings  went  into  the  savings  bank  instead  of 
the  saloon  !  how  quickly  the  sharp  struggle  of  unarmored 
combatants  for  bread  would  become  a  gentler  striving  for  the 
best  of  a  sufficiency,  if  prudence  oftener  restrained  animalism 
and  love !  and  if  the  army  of  toil  proved  itself  fitted  for 
higher  duty  by  thus  withstanding  its  special  temptations  of 
selfishness,  not  all  the  capital  in  the  world  could  stay  its  ad- 
vancement for  a  single  month,  or  restrain  it  from  obtaining 
to  the  utmost  farthing  the  just  value  of  its  services. 

A  workingman  earning  $10.00  per  week,  and  the  interest 
on  capital  being  5  per  cent.,  represents  to  himself  a  capital- 
ized value  of  $10,400,  which  sum  he  can  measurably  increase 
or  decrease  by  education  or  debauchery.  The  education  that 
"wage-earners  most  need  is  not  as  accessible  as  it  ought  to  be, 
yet  books  on  any  technical  subject  are  readily  procurable, 
and  every  craftsman  and  operative  who  desires  can  extend 
his  knowledge,  usefulness  and  value  by  self-education. 

Death  is  always  thinning  the  ceaseless  procession  of  life, 
and  as  the  ranks  close  up  it  is  the  best  fitted  who  are  selected 
to  lead.  The  difference  in  economic  value  to  an  employer 
between  two  men,  one  of  whom  spends  his  spare  time  in  a 
saloon,  and  the  other  in  acquiring  knowledge  with  reference 
to  his  vocation,  will  be  very  perceptible  at  the  end  of  a 
twelve-month,  and  when  a  vacancy  occurs,  or  dull  times 
make  it  necessary  to  reduce  the  force,  it  is  needless  to  say 
which  of  the  two  will  be  favored. 

The  power  of  a  directing  mind  can  manifest  itself  in  the 
humblest  occupations.  An  eminent  authority,  speaking  on 
this  subject,  once  said  that  an  intelligent  stoker  would  run 
the  same  engine  with  from  one-third  to  one-half  the  amount 
of  coal  that  a  less  intelligent  one  would  consume,  and  that  it 
required  from  one-fifth  to  one-third  fewer  seamen  to  work  a 


1S8  VALUE  OF  SKILL. 

vessel  when  they  were  selected  from  comparatively  educated 
men  than  it  did  when  manned  by  an  unintelligent  crew.  The 
greater  the  attainments  of  an  employe  the  more  valuable  he 
becomes  to  himself  as  well  as  to  his  employer.  He  needs  less 
superintendence  and  so  decreases  the  item  of  unproductive 
outlay.  His  efficiency  manifests  itself  in  his  methods  of 
labor,  in  his  economical  expenditure  of  time  and  effort,  in 
the  ease  with  which  he  comprehends  new  instructions,  and 
generally  by  the  application  of  intelligence  to  the  end  in 
view.  These  qualifications  add  to  his  capitalized  worth  and 
enable  him  to  obtain  the  highest  current  wages,  just  as  their 
absence  reduces  his  industrial  value  and  consequently  his 
wage-earning  power  through  life. 

It  is  this  that  makes  one  lawyer  or  physician  more  valuable 
than  another,  both  to  himself  and  to  the  community;  it  is 
this  that  enables  the  manager  to  make  larger  earnings  than 
the  foreman,  the  foreman  than  the  ordinary  artisan,  and  the 
artisan  than  the  apprentice.  The  world  is  full  of  men  who 
have  acquired  honor  and  wealth  by  constantly  adding  to 
their  store  of  knowledge  and  learning  how  to  apply  it ;  for 
God  rarely  leaves  us  without  some  endowment,  the  proper 
cultivation  and  exercise  of  which  will  make  us  useful  to  our- 
selves and  others.  If  any  are  so  unfortunate  as  not  to  find 
their  particular  gifts,  the  least  among  them  can  even  then  so 
order  his  daily  life  as  to  add  to  its  intrinsic  utility.  Moral 
qualities  have  a  marketable  value.  Trustworthiness,  temper- 
ance and  zeal  are  ratable  commodities,  and  these  are  within 
ready  attainment.  The  humblest  worker  can  eschew-  those 
offences  which  detract  from  his  industrial  desirability.  He 
can  be  promptly  in  his  place  with  strength  unsapped  by 
drink.  He  can  perform  his  duty  without  requiring  a  watch- 
ful eye,  can  concentrate  all  his  intelligence  upon  his  labor, 
and  by  thus  being  faithful  in  small  things  surely  increase  that 
capital  the  interest  on  which  is  paid  in  the  form  of  earnings. 

Mention  has  been  made  of  the  competition  to  which  labor 
— unskilled  labor  more  particularly — subjects  itself  by  reck- 
lessness of  increase,  and  there  is  another  factor  which  tends 


MARRIED  WOMEN.  189 

to  sharpen  the  struggle  for  bread  directly  traceable  to  the 
same  cause,  viz.,  juvenile  labor  and  the  employment  of  mar- 
ried women.  When  the  early  factory  operatives  of  England 
found  that  there  was  a  demand  for  their  children  in  the  cot- 
ton mills,  those  who  had  families  liiought  that  tiie  new  source 
of  income  would  greatly  increase  the  general  earnings,  and 
that  the  larger  the  family  the  more  would  be  the  weekly  pay. 
Instead  of  these  anticii)ations  being  realized  the  children,  by 
working  for  a  pittance,  deprived  their  parents  of  employment, 
with  results  that  have  already  been  referred  to.  The  same 
conditions  yet  prevail  in  many  occupations  not  controlled  by 
legislation,  and  parents  are  still  engaged  in  putting  tjie  half- 
a-dollar  earned  by  their  boys  and  girls  into  ofte  pocket  and 
losing  dollars  from  another,  by  competing  with  little  ones 
who  should  be  at  their  rudimentary  studies. 

If  it  were  an  established  principle  of  industrial  society  that 
the  proper  place  for  the  married  woman  was  the  home,  and 
for  the  child,  in  the  first  instance,  the  ordinary  public  school, 
and  afterwards  the  trade  school,  there  would  be  no  such  un- 
comfortable statistics  as  those  lately  presented,  of  a  million 
men,  strong  in  their  desire  to  work,  yet  vainly  seeking  it. 
The  effect  of  lengthening  the  school-life  by  a  single  year 
would  be  immediately  perceptible  by  a  diminution  of  the 
number  unemployed;  and  if  the  practice  of  married  women 
and  mothers  going  out  to  work  was  discontinued,  nearly  all 
these  seekers  would  be  readily  absorbed  by  industry.  Here 
as  in  many  other  things  labor  is  its  own  foe.  Weighted  at 
the  beginning  of  the  industrial  life  by  improvident  marriage, 
the  wage-earner  soon  finds  his  means  altogether  insufficient 
for  the  support  of  an  increasing  family,  and  before  its  mem- 
bers are  of  proper  age  they  are  sent  out  to  join  the  throngs 
that  crowd  the  avenues  of  occupation,  where  they  are  pres- 
ently followed  by  the  mother.  The  social  consequences  of 
all  this  is  deplorable,  and  from  it  springs  more  evils  than  can 
well  be  counted.  If  juvenile  labor  was  eliminated  from  the 
industrial  problem,  there  would  at  once  be  such  an  increase 
of  wages  as  better  to  enable  the  father  to  resume  his  proper 


190  COMPETITION   OF.  LABOREHS. 

place  as  the  sole  provider ;  if  it  was  considered  wrong  for  the 
wife  to  join  in  the  work  of  the  factory,  the  children  would 
receive  their  due  of  natural  care,  and  home  would  be  the 
gainer,  while  the  young,  by  reason  of  the  physical  and  edu- 
cational advantages  thus  obtained,  would  be  more  likely  to 
become  efficients  in  the  world's  rank  and  file. 

The  unnecessary  competition  of  workmen  with  each  other 
can  also  be  seen  in  the  matter  of  over  time.  Every  man  who 
works  longer  than  the  regular  hours  of  his  trade  deprives 
some  fellow-craftsman  or  operative  of  his  share  of  labor  and 
adds  to  the  number  of  unemployed.  Excessive  hours  have 
the  same  result,  and  if  we  assume  that  under  normal  condi- 
tions production  and  consumption  are  nearly  on  a  level,  it 
would  only  require  a  decrease  of  7^  per  cent,  in  the  working 
day  to  provide  abundant  employment  for  that  proportion  of 
the  working  population  said  to  be  idle.  Whether  this  de- 
crease would  cause  a  general  reduction  in  earnings  is  not 
quite  certain,  but  the  probability  is  that  the  extent  of  the 
derangement  would  at  most  only  amount  to  2  or  3  per  cent., 
against  which  must  be  placed  many  compensations,  one  of 
which,  the  increased  consumption  of  the  newly  employed, 
ought  quickly  to  offset  every  other  loss. 

Excluding  the  question  of  co-operation,  which  can  only  be 
generally  adopted  with  the  concurrence  of  capital,  in  peace- 
ful alliance  with  labor,  it  must  be  abundantly  evident  from 
the  foregoing  that  the  wage-earning  class  can  greatly  improve 
its  own  condition  by  clearing  away  the  minor  obstructions  to 
progress,  and  thus  hasten  the  solution  of  its  world-old  dispute 
with  capital.  The  removal  of  these  impediments  involves  no 
cloud-capped  possibilities,  so  high  above  attainment  as  to  be 
insurmountable,  or,  if  won  at  all,  to  be  gained  only  by  per- 
sistent and  exhaustive  effort.  They  do  not  even  require  ad- 
herence to  an  exalted  qioral  code,  or  a  sacrifice  of  anything 
but  a  little  unprofitable  selfishness.  They  are  plain,  practical, 
commonplace  and  common-sense  measures  that  each  one  can 
adopt  for  himself  without  waiting  for  his  neighbor.  Every 
man  can  set  up  a  higher  standard  of  providence ;  every  man 


ECONOMIC   SOLUTIONS.  191 

can  increase  his  own  capitalized  value  and  refrain  from  need- 
less competition ;  and  supplementary  to  these,  every  man 
can,  if  he  so  will,  beautify  his  life  and  import  into  all  his  re- 
lations, spirituality  and  love.  It  is  well  said  that  "  the  golden 
rule  is  a  protest  against  selfishness,  and  selfishness,  cleaving  as 
it  does  to  the  innermost  core  of  our  being,  is  the  besetting 
sin  of  the  world."  The  faults  of  omission  and  commission, 
for  which  labor  is  alone  responsible,  like  all  forms  of  selfish- 
ness, are  a  detriment  to  social  as  well  as  soul  growth.  Chris- 
tianity could  be  eliminated  from  the  discussion  of  every  social 
problem,  and  it  would  yet  be  found,  universally,  and  with  no 
single  exception,  that  the  just  economic  solution  was  in  every 
case  only  the  practical  application  of  the  Christ  way.  Equity 
in  every  department  of  human  intercourse  was  the  basis  of 
Christ's  teachings,  and  though  he  stands  immeasurably  be- 
yond our  moral  attainment,  we  can  yet  strive  for  a  nearer 
approach,  and  in  doing  so  the  problems  that  confront  both 
capital  and  labor,  however  formidable  they  may  appear,  will 
resolve  into  empty  nothings — mere  shadows  of  our  (ears,  f 

A  practical  method  of  deciding  disputes*  between  em- 
ployer and  employed  before  they  reach  the  aggressiveness 
that  leads  to  conflict  is  very  much  needed  in  this  country, 
and,  as  in  many  other  things  i:)ertaining  to  industrial  interests, 
might  have  been  adopted  long  ago  had  we  been  content  to 
learn  from  the  experience  of  other  nations.  The  i)rinciple 
of  arbitration  has  been  incorporated  in  the  statutes  of  several 
states,  but  for  some  reason  its  application  has  not  been  a  suc- 
cess. Wiiether  this  arises  from  a  want  of  confidence  in  the 
possibility  of  settling  labor  disputes  by  the  reasonable  meth- 
ods of  disinterested  and  conciliatory  adjudication,  or  that  the 
organizations  of  labor  are  yet  too  poorly  disciplined  to  sub- 


*  The  Scriptural  rule  for  the  seUlement  of  disputes  is  by  arbitration. 
f**If  ihy  brother  shall  trespass  ajjainst  thee,  go  and  tell  him  his  fault 
between  thee  and  liini  alone;  if  lie  shall  hear  thee,  thou  hast  gained  thy 
brother.  But  if  he  will  not  hear  ///^^,  ///en  take  with  thee  one  or  two 
more;  ...  if  he  shall  neglect  to  hear  them,  tell  iV  unto  the  church./ — 
Mat/.  i8  :  15-17.  / 


192  ARBITRATION. 

mit  to  the  strain  of  an  adverse  award,  or  that  capital,  in  full 
assurance  of  independent  sovereignty,  is  afraid  it  might  abro- 
gate its  position  by  negotiating  with  labor,  the  fact  remains 
that  arbitration  plays  little  or  no  part  here  in  simplifying  the 
relations  of  the  productive  foctors ;  while  in  England  and 
France  it  has  as  much  superseded  strikes  and  lockouts  as  tlie 
courts  of  law  the  duelling  pistol. 

In  Mr.  Daniel  J.  Ryan's  valuable  treatise  on  arbitration* 
it  is  stated  that  its  effect  in  France,  Austria,  and  Belgium  has 
uniformly  tended  to  the  elevation  of  labor,  and  that  the 
800,000  members  of  trade  unions  in  England  have  unani- 
mously declared  it  to  be  an  essential  feature  of  industrial 
progress.  In  corroboration  of  this  opinion  it  is  evident  that 
the  relations  of  employer  and  employed  show  a  marked 
change  for  the  better  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  in 
that  country.  Twenty  years  ago  the  enormous  coal  mining 
and  manufactured  iron  industries  of  the  north  of  England, 
**  representing  millions  of  capital  and  armies  of  labor,"  were 
threatened  with  absolute  ruin  in  consequence  of  the  persistent 
strivings  of  labor  with  capital.  Conflict  after  conflict  para- 
lyzed trade,  *' crowds  of  hunger-smitten  workmen  begged  for 
bread  in  the  streets,  or  savagely  denounced  the  capitalists  who 
were  trying  to  starve  them  into  submission;"  mines  and  iron 
works  were  closed  down  and  anarchy  seemed  to  be  settling 
over  the  district.  When  not  in  actual  strife  a  profound  feel- 
ing of  distrust  and  ill-nature  intervened  ;  master  and  work- 
man surveyed  each  other  as  natural  enemies,  and  were  equally 
ready  to  commence  hostilities  whenever  the  occasion  promised 
an  advantage.  During  a  revival  of  trade  in  1869,  when  both 
sides  stood  to  arms  waiting  for  the  expected  storm,  a  board 
of  arbitration  was  proposed,  and  with  a  vivid  recollection  of 
recent  suffering  and  pecuniary  loss,  the  proposition  was  ac- 
cepted. Inadequate  as  the  means  seemed,  its  effects  have 
been  astonishing.  Mr.  Locke,  the  United  States  consul  at 
Newcastle-on-Tyne,   in  commenting  on   the  change,  says:f 

*  "  Arl)itration  Between  Cnpital  and  Labor." 

f  See  United  Slates  Consular  Reports,  "  Labor  in  Foreign  Countries," 
pages  783-4. 


ARBITRATION.  193 

*' Employers  are  always  accessible  to  even  the  humblest  of 
their  men.  If  any  one  has  a  grievance  he  may  state  it  clearly 
and  freely,  without  any  fear  of  prejudice,  and  it  will  be  in- 
vestigated. All  questions  affecting  the  rights  of  workingmen 
are  discussed  in  the  most  friendly  manner  by  representatives 
of  the  workmen  and  of  the  employers,  and  if  they  cannot 
arrive  at  an  understanding,  arbitration  almost  invariably  fol- 
lows, thus  doing  away  with  the  long  and  disastrous  strikes 
that  were  formerly  used  to  force  a  settlement  of  difference." 
Thus  in  one  or  two  counties  alone  more  than  100,000  wage- 
receivers  are  now,  and  have  for  a  long  time  been,  absolutely 
exempt  from  loss  of  earnings  in  consequence  of  dispute  with 
their  employers,  and  those  employers  have  been  able  to  insure 
their  capital  from  enforced  idleness  and  some  risk,  by  the 
simple  adoption  of  voluntary  arbitration. 

The  history  of  the  Nottingham  hosiery  trade  is  a  repetition 
of  the  same  story,  though  in  point  of  date,  as  marking  the 
introduction  of  industrial  conciliation,  it  ought  to  have  been 
told  first.  Until  i860  employers  and  men  worked,  figura- 
tively speaking,  sword  in  hand.  In  Mr.  Mundella's  words, 
the  men  **  took  every  advantage  of  us  when  we  had  a  demand, 
and  we  took  every  advantage  of  them  when  trade  was  bad, 
and  it  was  a  system  mutually  predatory."  This  state  of 
things  so  seriously  affected  industry  that  Mr.  Mundella  re- 
solved, if  possible,  to  apply  a  remedy,  and  having  some 
knowledge  of  the  manner  in  which  the  conseils  des  prud^- 
homtnes  worked  in  France,  conceived  that  a  modification  of 
the  method  might  be  found  adaptable  for  England.  His 
plans  were  at  first  received  with  suspicion  by  the  men,  while 
the  masters  deprecated  attempts  at  conciliation  as  humiliating 
and  degrading,  but  notwithstanding  these  discouragements,  a 
board  of  arbitration  was  launched,  and  proved  from  the  start 
such  a  safe,  simple,  and  speedy  way  of  obviating  industrial 
disputes  that  the  only  wonder  was,  as  in  all  other  great  dis- 
coveries, that  it  had  not  been  thought  of  before.  Ten  years 
after  the  formation  of  the  board  the  Contemporary  Review 
was  enabled  to  say  that  strikes  in  Nottingham  were  at  an  end, 
13 


194  ARBITRATION. 

and  although  since  then  there  have  been  a  few  of  minor  im- 
portance, the  old  era  of  warfare  has  been  succeeded  by  one 
of  peace  and  friendship.* 

Permanent  boards  of  arbitration  have  since  then  been  es- 
tablished in  most  of  the  prominent  industries,  and  their  uni- 
form success  demonstrates  "that  all  the  difficulties  which 
arise  between  capital  and  labor  are  capable  of  a  just  and 
inexpensive  solution."  Although  the  proceedings  are  entirely- 
voluntary  and  have  no  legal  status,  it  is  to  the  honor  of  the 
parties  concerned — rough  workman  and  polished  capitalist — 
that  hardly  a  case  can  be  mentioned  where  the  awards  have 
not  been  accepted  and  carried  out  in  good  faith,  even  when 
they  involved  a  material  fall  of  wages  on  the  one  hand  or  loss 
of  profit  on  the  other;  while  confidence  and  mutual  respect 
have  taken  the  place  of  enmity,  and  a  nearer  approach  has 
been  made  to  a  determination  of  what  constitutes  fair  value 
for  fair  labor. 

The  Hocking  Valley  coal  region  of  Ohio  was  for  years  a 
very  hotbed  of  labor  troubles,  accompanied  by  an  intensity 
of  violence  that  attracted  the  attention  of  the  whole  country. 
Yet  the  change  that  has  been  lately  effected  by  arbitration  is 
almost  miraculous;  the  old  lawlessness  has  given  way  to  in- 
dustrial peace,  and  chronic  dissatisfaction  to  comparative 
contentment.  Contrasting  this  present  with  the  stormy  past, 
the  divine  words,  "Blessed  are  the  peacemakers,"  recur  in- 
voluntarily and  with  a  living  meaning  seldom  ascribed  to 
them.  One  man's  suggestion  that  the  wretched  strife  between 
industrial  equals  for  an  undue  share  of  profit  might  be  calmed 
by  an  application  of  the  great  law  of  love  and  conciliation. 


*  Speaking  of  Nottingham  trade  disputes,  Mr.  Ryan  says  in  his  work 
on  "Arbitration,"  pages  57-8 :  •'  For  years,  almost  centuries,  the  struggles 
of  violence  were  common  events  between  employers  and  employed.  A 
not  unusual  weapon  of  retaliation  used  by  the  workingmen  was  to  destroy 
the  machinery  of  the  manufacturer.  The  violence  growing  out  of  the 
disputes  of  labor  and  capital  made  it  necessary  for  Parliament  to  punish 
machine-breaking  with  death.  In  the  year  1816  six  persons  suffered  the 
death  penalty  for  this  offence.  From  1810  especially,  up  to  i860,  the 
condition  of  the  relations  of  labor  and  capital  was  that  of  contending 
military  forces." 


ARBITRATION.  105 

acted  like  oil  on  troubled  waters,  and  showed  the  neglected 
way  to  unity  of  interest  through  concord.  Surely  there  are 
many  others  among  our  masters  and  men  who,  preferring 
peace  to  war,  have  it  in  their  power  to  promote  peace  by 
instituting  the  safeguards  that  have  been  found  so  effective  in 
England  and  France.  Earnest  work  in  this  direction  will 
deserve  the  thanks  of  all,  whether  capitalist,  laborer  or  con- 
sumer, re-enforced  by  the  voice  of  grateful  womanhood  and 
the  benediction  uttered  by  him  whose  mission  on  earth  was 
to  accomplish  the  great  reconciliation. 

To  the  complex  intermingling  of  economic  and  moral  con- 
siderations that  make  up  the  labor  question  must  be  added 
another;  for  there  is  one  point  where  belief  comes  so 
strongly  in  contact  with  the  whole  sphere  of  human  action 
as  to  impart  to  it  an  influencing  factor,  not  only  in  indi- 
vidual morality,  but  in  the  science  of  society  and  of  govern- 
ment. Religious  enthusiasm  no  longer,  as  formerly,  shapes 
the  destiny  of  nations,  yet  the  religious  motive,  in  its  widest 
sense,  was  never  so  potent  an  inspiration  to  right-doing,  in 
the  parliaments  of  nations,  in  the  civic  chambers,  in  the  di- 
rection of  the  family,  or  the  guidance  of  the  individual,  as 
now. 

But  there  has  also  been  another  dissemination  not  openly 
nor  actively  antagonistic  to  any  of  the  primitive  moralities, 
yet  naturally  and  inevitably  opposed  to  that  higher  culture  of 
them  effected  by  religion,  and  while  this  new  element,  known 
as  materialism,  by  no  means  implies  the  absence  of  active 
morality,  it  seeks  to  rob  life  of  hope,  mankind  of  its  brother- 
hood, and  the  human  race  of  a  divine  Father.  It  relegates 
the  dead  into  nothingness  and  shipwrecks  the  living  on  an 
island  of  the  universe  cut  off  from  all  aid  except  their  own, 
and,  as  outcasts,  makes  them  amenable  to  no  law  but  that  of 
expediency.  If  expediency  involves  justice  it  is  only  an  in- 
cident, and  the  same  rule  might  some  day  involve  the  sacri- 
fice of  a  minority  for  the  good  of  the  majority,  as  in  the 
reversal  of  humanitarian  considerations  in  order  to  promote 
the  survival  of  the  fittest. 


196  MATERIALISM   AND  WORKINGMEN. 

This  subject  has  not  been  introduced  for  polemical  discus- 
sion, but  as  an  integral  portion  of  tlie  dispute  between  capital 
and  labor;  for  as  love  or  selfishness  are  the  guiding  motives 
of  the  controversy,  so  will  the  hope  of  a  settlement  rise  or 
fall ;  and  as  selfishness  is  always  blind  to  its  real  interests,  if 
men's  actions  are  to  be  governed  by  materialism,  labor  will 
have  to  win  victories  on  other  fields,  aided  by  or  aiding  re- 
ligion, before  its  final  freedom  can  be  attained,  ^he  danger 
that  specially  threatens  society  at  the  moment  is  not  the  re- 
fined unbelief  of  scientific  agnosticism,  but  the  coarse  ma- 
terialism that  has  saturated  the  lives  of  the  fermentable  masses, 
and  left  them  without  any  other  restraint  than  the  actual  force 
of  law  as  asserted  by  the  policeman's  baton  and  the  soldier's 
muskety 

Whatever  dissatisfaction  has  previously  existed  with  human 
institutions  among  those  who  indeed  have  had  more  than 
good  grounds  for  active  discontent,  society  has  until  recently 
always  found  a  powerful  ally  in  the  religious  sentiment. 
While  it  was  an  uncontroverted  article  of  faith  among  those 
who  knew  little  else,  that  this  world  was  but  the  vestibule  to 
the  eternal  one  ;  men  bore  their  ills  as  patiently  as  they  could, 
believing  that  in  some  other  place  they  would  attain  justice 
from  the  great  Redressor.  **  Vengeance  is  mine;  I  will  re- 
pay," has  held  many  a  hand  prone  to  revenge  and  stilled  the 
rising  blood  of  many  an  evil  passion,  though  the  words  them- 
selves may  have  been  as  unfamiliar  as  a  quotation  in  an  un- 
known tongue.  The  trust  was  there,  as  the  Christian  teach- 
ing of  centuries,  and  frequently  as  all  that  had  been  learned  of 
Christianity.  It  was  a  mitigation  of  the  present  by  an  appeal 
to  the  future,  and  a  transfer  of  hope  from  this  world  to  God. 

Similarly,  the  divine  parable  of  Lazarus,  as  an  expression 
that  runs  through  the  gospel  of  an  ultimate  equalization  after 
judgment,  made  present  inequalities  less  bitter,  the  rich 
poorer  and  the  poor  richer  than  was  manifested  by  the  out- 
ward signs  of  earthly  condition  ;  and  again  hope  tinged,  what 
must  otherwise  have  been  the  darkness  of  despair,  with  the 
glory  of  the  hereafter. 


DANGER  AHEAD.  197 

All  this  materialism  has  withdrawn,  and  more.  It  has  not 
only  dispossessed  Christianity  where  Christianity  was  most 
needed  as  a  comfort  and  support,  but  likewise  that  belief  in 
immortality  and  God  which  is  the  common"  keystone  of  all 
faith  and  all  prayer,  whether  uttered  in  Christian  cathedral, 
Mohammedan  mosque,  or  Buddhist  temple. 

That  there  is  no  life  except  our  brief  sojourn  on  this  little 
speck  whirling  in  space  is  now  the  accepted  tenet  of  a  very 
large  number,  who,  if  such  is  the  truth,  have  both  good  cause 
and  reason  to  take  what  they  can,  how  they  can.  It  was  this 
idea  that  led  to  the  awful  excesses  of  the  French  Revolution, 
and  it  permeates  to-day  an  immense  portion  of  Germany, 
France,  and  the  pulsing  heart  of  London,  with  a  pregnancy 
of  evil  never  before  known.  **  A  deep,  half-confessed  sense 
of  the  injustice  of  life  is  becoming  the  living  creed  of  men 
who  curse  the  God  of  the  churches  and  the  rich,"  writes  an 
English  clergyman  in  an  article  on  "Outcast  London."* 
No  longer  *'du]l,  awfully  passive  and  infinitely  patient,"  but 
with  **  the  red  cap  of  continental  revolutionary  thought,  pass- 
ing along  like  a  spectre  of  scenes  not  a  century  old,"  they 
have  reached  a  conclusion  the  promulgation  of  which  would 
send  a  shudder  of  fear  through  empires,  kingdoms  and  com- 
monwealths, and  arrived  at  a  solution  for  all  problems  the 
working  out  of  which  would  overthrow,  if  not  rebuild,  the 
entire  social  fabric.  Statesmanship  has  nothing  to  offer  them ; 
property  stands  dumb,  or  strengthens  its  bolts  and  bars,  and 
the  religion  of  the  churches  is  refused  with  open  scorn.  Are 
we  to  let  things  take  their  course  and  trust  in  the  general  co- 
herence of  the  crust  that  has  formed  above  the  seething  lava 
to  restrain  a  volcanic  outbreak,  or  shall  statesmanship,  |fop^ 
ert)^and  religion  in  triplicate  alliance,  seek  by  steady,  patient 
and  unwearying  effort  to  do  and  undo,  to  project  and  to  re- 
move, until  the  lowering  temperature  shows  that  the  danger- 
ous pressure  is  again  reduced  ?  Government  and  religion 
have  done  not  nearly  all  they  could,  but  nearly  all  that  has 

*  The  Rev.  G.  S.  Reany  in  the  Fortnightly  Review ^  December,  1886. 


198  DANGER  AHEAD. 

been  accomplished  in  the  past  to  remedy  social  conditions,  br.t 
wealth,  holding  back  its  hand,  has  looked  to  the  others  for  pres- 
ervation, and  with  rare  exception  warranted  the  saying  that 
cowardice  and  selfishness  are  its  natural  attributes.  It  has  been 
the  first  to  appeal  for  protection  and  the  last  to  protect,  and 
whether  it  was  a  nation  struggling  in  the  throes  of  civil  war, 
industry  taking  on  itself  a  new  form,  or  society,  through  gov- 
ernment and  religion,  seeking  to  mitigate  and  redress  social 
evils,  wealth  has  dlung  fast  to  its  purse  until  it  has  bargained 
for  interest  and  security,  and  then,  unless  closely  watched, 
shirked  its  share  of  the  taxation  necessary  to  pay  the  bond. 

What  government,  impelled  by  Christianity,  has  done  for 
la'bor,  the  legislation  of  the  century  abundantly  shows.  What 
Christianity,  unaided,  has  effected  is  also  recorded  in  every 
forward,  saving,  and  deterrent  movement  since  the  birth  of 
Christianity.  The  page  on  which  is  written  the  fulfilled  ob- 
ligations of  property  is  yet  nearly  a  blank  and  its  great  stew- 
ardship unaccounted  for. 

If  there  is  to  be  a  change  for  the  better  in  the  undercur- 
rent of  life  in  our  great  cities,  wealth  must  be  a  more  active 
instrument  in  bringing  it  about  than  hitherto,  and  it  can 
best  effect  that  object  by  strengthening  vital  religion.  It 
must  aid  Christianity  to  subdue  materialism  and  anarchy  in 
their  strongholds,  not  by  the  preaching  of  theology  and 
dogma,  but  by  and  through  the  power  of  the  simple  logic  of 
Christ,  by  the  exercise  of  the  inexhaustible  love  he  taught,  by 
the  wise  distribution  of  superabundance  in  helpful  ways,  and 
by  the  active  sympathy  of  an  acknowledged  brotherhood  be- 
tween those  who  are  rich  in  God's  material  gifts  and  the  poor 
and  miserable.  It  is  too  late  to  cope  with  the  aggressive 
materialism  of  our  populous  centres  by  any  other  method. 
Preaching  and  teaching  can  follow  in  due  time  when  the 
heart  is  readier  to  receive  than  now,  for  neither  the  moral 
nor  the  religious  standard  of  the  depressed  can  be  raised 
until  their  social  condition  has  been  improved  by  the 
means  that  wealth  should  gladly  aid  Christianity  in  fur- 
nishing. 


INFLUENCE  OP   MATERIALISM.  199 

The  influence  of  materialism  on  other  ranks  of  society, 
though  not  so  deeply  impressed  as  on  the  very  lowest,  is  still 
apparent  in  the  general  desire  to  extract  all  the  enjoyment 
that  life  offers,  careless  whether  the  pleasure  be  pure  or 
deadly.  The  frivolities  that  invariably  mark  modern  fashion- 
able life  have  always  had  their  counterpart,  yet  the  past  can 
justly  plead  that  its  conceptions  of  duty  were  much  narrower 
than  now,  and  the  exercise  of  it  restricted  by  laws,  customs, 
and  conditions  that  no  longer  prevail.  The  excuse  for  taunt- 
ing or  indifferent  luxury  ceased,  if  it  ever  had  a  reason,  with 
political  equality,  the  diffusion  of  education,  and  the  era 
of  invention.  Before  then,  as  the  clothing  and  symbol  of 
power,  it  was  considered  inseparable  from  rank.  Tlie  uses  of 
wealth  were  so  limited  that  a  large  portion  of  it  could  be  de- 
voted to  pageantry,  display,  and  rude  individual  gratification, 
not  only  without  challenging  opposition,  but  with  the  con- 
currence that  every  man  had  a  right  to  do  what  he  willed 
with  his  own.  No  one  thought  of  asking  either  how  it  was 
obtained,  orhov^_s]2£aU  and  both  opinion  and  law  sanctioned 
devices  m  getting  and  spending  that  modern  enlightenment 
has  stamped  as  criminal.  All  this  is  of  the  past ;  the  quicken- 
ing conscience  of  the  world  now  holds  that  money  must 
rightly  come  and  rightly  go,  and  though  few  conform  to  this 
idea,  it  is  rapidly  crystallizing  into  an  unwritten  law,  to 
which  some  day  will  be  added  "with  honor." 

In  Massillon's  magnificent  discourse  on  Immortality  he 
justly  says  that  if  we  wholly  perish  with  the  body,  the  entire 
system  of  laws,  manners  and  usages  on  which  human  society 
is  founded  is  an  imposition,  obedience  to  them  an  insensate 
servitude,  justice  an  unwarrantable  infringement  upon  the 
liberty  of  men,  and  the  harsh  epithets  attached  to  crime 
merely  words  that  the  policy  of  legislators  has  invented  and 
imposed  on  the  people.  And  though  we  assume  that  under 
any  form  of  belief  the  restraint  of  law  will  be  accepted  by 
the  majority  as  a  necessity  for  the  general  protection,  and 
further  admit  that  the  gentler  life  of  polished  and  humane 
culture  is  to  be  a  rule  with  that  majority,  materialism  can  at 


200  INFLUENCE   OF   MATERIALISM. 

the  most  make  out  of  such  a  system  a  refined  selfishness,  from 
which  pity,  love  and  sympathy  will  have  been  abstracted, 
and  in  their  places  substituted  a  politic  charity,  when  charity 
is  politic,  as  a  sop  to  Cerberus. 

Yet  even  this  is  to  assume  too  much  and  to  predict  without 

yt^lcnowledge.     The  world  has  only  once  had  the  experience  of 

a  nation  of  materialists,  and  that  but  for  a  day.     Judging 

?^*\&  from  the  example  it  afforded,  the  foundation  of  all  institu- 
«P       tions  would  be  broken  up  and  society  relapse  into  a  moral 

fK         chaos,  the  disorder  of  which  would  exceed  conception. 

Life  is  already  colored  by  this  negation  of  hope  and  aspira- 
tion. It  is  manifest  in  the  exaltation  of  riches,  in  the  haste 
to  be  rich  at  any  price,  in  the  devotion  of  every  energy  to 
wealth-getting  and  pleasure-seeking,  and  the  sacrifice  of  the 
spiritual  to  the  material. 

fvVe  may  rear  temples  of  art,  literature,  and  science,  and 
adorn  them  with  all  the  trophies  of  human  achievement ;  we 
may  open  colleges  and  institutions  of  learning  in  every  con- 
gregation of  men ;  we  may  teach  liberty,  equality,  and  frater- 
nity at  every  corner,  banish  disease  and  poverty,  and  so  aug- 
ment and  distribute  nature's  bounties  as  to  give  to  all  a 
sufficiency  for  a  trifle  of  labor;  but  without  the  belief  in  a 
life  beyond  the  grave,  without  the  acceptance  of  the  brother- 
hood that  springs  from  a  universal  Father,  sin  and  passion  will 
assert  themselves  in  newer  forms,  and  the  last  condition  of 
society  will  be  worse  than  the  firs^ 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE   CONSOLIDATION   OF   LABOR. 

"So  the  carpenter  encourafjed  the  goMsmiih,  <7W</  he  that  smoolhcth 
with  the  hammer  him  thnt  smote  the  anvil." — Isaiah  41  :  7. 

"Combinations  of  workini^men  for  the  protection  of  their  labor  are 
alike  recommended  by  reason  and  experience." — Duke  of  Argyle. 

The  internal  competitions  and  dissensions  of  labor  have 
done  as  much  to  retard  a  settlement  of  reasonable  demand  as 
the  opposition  of  capital  or  the  dilatoriness  of  governments. 
This  competition  has  proceeded  not  alone  from  the  multi- 
plication of  those  seeking  employment  and  the  consequent 
crowding  of  the  labor  ranks  beyond  the  need  of  the  em- 
ployer, but  also  from  the  absence  of  effective  concert,  thus 
permitting  neighbor  to  bid  against  neighbor,  without  either 
having  more  than  a  vague  idea  of  what  a  fair  day's  wages 
should  be.  The  entrenched  position  occupied  by  capital,* 
and  the  inability  of  the  laborer  to  sustain  a  prolonged  war- 
fare, have  further  combined  to  place  him  at  the  mercy  of  the 
employer,  and  so  in  modern  times  he  has  almost  invariably 
been  compelled  to  take  counsel  of  his  necessities  and  accept 
such  remuneration  as  was  offered. 

Yet  men  of  the  same  craft  have  always  retained  more  or 
less  of  an  alliance,  and  have  been  able  through  this  union  to 
exercise  occasionally  a  powerful  influence  in  determining  and 
gaining  their  own  rights  and,  incidentally,  the  rights  of 
others.  In  M.  de  Cassagnac's  **  History  of  the  Burgher  and 
Working  Classes"  he  attempts  to  show  on  the  authority  of 
the  Eighth  Book  of  Josephus  that  Jewish  trade  unions  existed 

*  The  rich  man's  wealth  is  his  strong  city." — Prov.  10  :  15. 

(201) 


202  CRAFT-GUILDS. 

during  the  building  of  Solomon's  Temple,*  and  from  Plu- 
tarch, that  corps  of  craftsmen  were  established  in  Rome  dur- 
ing the  reign  of  Numa;  but  relegating  these  assertions  to  the 
realm  of  myth,  there  is  abundant  evidence  that  the  Romans 
exercised  the  right  of  association  during  the  Republic,  and 
that  their  guilds  grew  rapidly  in  wealth  and  importance  until 
crippled  by  the  jealousy  of  the  Emperors  and  the  plunder  of 
their  accumulations,  confiscated  to  support  the  riotous  follies 
of  purpled  tyrants.  With  the  era  of  barbarism  that  followed 
the  cloud  of  northern  conquest,  and  the  disruption  of  the 
empire,  industrial  association  must  have  been  impossible, 
though  in  the  laborious  researches  of  the  author  mentioned, 
traces  of  the  Roman  unions  are  stated  to  be  found  in  docu- 
ments as  late  as  the  year  864,  and  remembering  how  vigor- 
ously (he  Romans  impressed  their  customs  on  subject  prov- 
inces, this  is  not  incredible.  A  craft-guild  of  London 
weavers  was  chartered  by  Henry  I.f  (a.  d.  1100-33),  ^"^ 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  II.  (a.  d.  1154-89)  several  provincial 
guilds  of  the  same  trade  had  their  charters  confiruied,  show- 
ing that  they  must  then  have  been  in  existence  for  some  time. 
The  oldest  German  charter  concerning  craftsmen  dates  from 
1 1 49  and  likewise  refers  to  a  weaver-guild — that  of  Cologne, 
though  it  appears  from  other  records  that  this  union  was 
established  long  before.  Weaver-guilds  are  also  mentioned 
at  Mayence  as  early  as  1099,  and  at  Worms  in  1114.]; 

**  The  first  written  and  official  document  on  the  trades 
unions  of  Paris  dates  from  the  year  1258,  under  the  reign  of 
St.  Louis,"  says  M.  de  Cassagnac,  and  it  is  probable  that 
they  had  reappeared  a  century  before  then,  perhaps  almost 
as  soon  as  the  incipient  burghs  afforded  a  slight  security  for 
the  pursuit  of  settled  industry,  as  in  Florence,  where  they 
took  an  early  part  in  the  organization  of  town  government. 
The  document  referred    to  enumerates  the  statutes  of  one 


*  Demetrius,  the  silversmith  of  Ephesus,  undoubtedly  belonged  to  a 
guild  of  that  craft.     See  Acts  19  :  24-41. 
■j-  Brentano,  "On  Guilds,"  page  52. 
X  Ibid.,  page  53. 


APruKMicKsuip.  203 

hundred  trades  and  industrial  professions,  comprising  nearly 
every  legitimate  occupation  then  known,  and  from  the  regu- 
lations for  their  internal  government  it  appears  that  an  ele- 
ment totally  wanting  in  the  Roman  unions  was  introduced 
about  that  time — viz. :  the  system  of  apprenticeship.* 

Even  at  this  early  period  many  of  tlie  trades  limited  the 
number  of  learners  each  master  could  take  to  one  or  two, 
while  others,  like  the  butchers  and  bakers,  admitted  them  at 
will.  Thus  goldsmiths  were  restricted  to  one,  cutlers  to  two, 
silk-spinners  to  three,  and  every  apprentice,  irrespective  of 
the  number  allowed,  was  bound  for  a  fixed  time,  and  had  to 
pay  for  the  privilege  of  instruction.  A  ropemaker's  appren- 
tice served  four  years,  a  cutler's  six,  a  goldsmith's  six,  a  box- 
maker*s  seven,  and  a  buckle-maker's  eight,  though  the  pre- 
mium for  indenture  was  usually  remitted  on  condition  of 
remaining  one  or  two  additional  years.  Another  feature  of 
the  system  was  that  the  master  could  teach  his  own  sons  his 
craft,  the  apprenticeship  restriction  not  applying  to  them  ; 
and  so  one  particular  trade  often  remained  in  a  family  for 
generations,  resulting  in  the  acquirement  of  an  inherited 
skill  that  produced  the  marvellous  handiwork  of  the  Renais- 
sance.f  At  the  expiration  of  the  time  of  service  the  appren- 
tice who  aspired  to  mastership  had  to  show  his  ability  before 
a  jury  of  craftsmen,  and  if  he  passed  successfully  could  then 
enter  the  guild  or,  if  preferred,  become  a  free  workman,  seek- 
ing employment  in  those  cities  where  his  art  was  most  in 
demand,  as  was  generally  the  custom  with  the  master  masons, 
to  whom  the  world  owes  the  magnificent  cathedral  archi- 
tecture which  adorns  the  cities  of  Europe. 


*  The  institution  of  apprenticeship  is  first  mentioned  in  England  in  an 
act  of  Parliament  of  1388,  though  it  must  have  been  in  existence  there  r.t 
least  as  early  as  in  France. 

f  The  touch  of  the  Lyons  silk-weaver,  acquired  by  inheritance,  is  said 
to  be  the  reason  why  their  products  are  sui^erior  to  all  others,  and  a  simi- 
lar development  is  taking  place  in  the  cotton  mills  of  Lnncnshire.  "Some 
of  the  most  sensitive  astronomical  instruments  made  in  France  can  only 
be  produced  by  workmen  who  have  descended  through  three  or  four 
generations  of  these  instrument  makers."  United  Slates  Consular  Report, 
"Labor  in  Foreign  Countiies,"  pa^e  572, 


204  GUILDS   IN   MIDDLE  AGES. 

Religious  and  charitable  guilds  were  introduced  into  Europe 
before  the  seventh  century,  and  are  found  actively  in  existence 
from  thence  on.  Their  object,  says  Mr.  Ludlow,  was  to  secure 
**  mutual  help  in  certain  contingencies*  not  for  the  time  being 
provided  for  by  the  family  on  the  one  hand,  by  the  state 
(using  this  word  to  include  all  looser  forms  of  social  order) 
on  the  other."  They  were  at  first  unions  for  mutual  defense 
or  for  religious  and  social  duties,f  and  it  is  easy  to  see  how 
the  natural  tendency  of  association  would  gradually  develop 
them  into  bodies  for  the  encouragement  of  special  crafts  and 
ultimately  for  their  regulation.  In  the  northern  parts  of 
Europe  the  guilds  of  the  twelfth  century  undertook  to  sup- 
press piracy;  in  Germany  they  endeavored  to  maintain  peace 
even  against  kings,  and  in  the  centres  of  industry  of  Italy, 
France,  Germany  and  Constantinople  "they  formed  the 
strength  of  commerce."! 

In  the  turmoil  of  the  Middle  Ages  the  guilds  of  Central 
Europe  were  a  rallying  point  for  the  burghers  against  the  at- 
tacks of  feudalism,  and  during  the  transition  of  society  from 
baronial  rule  to  that  of  civic  freedom  their  incomparable  ser- 
vices to  progress  in  the  sustenance  of  individual  rights,  and 
in  laying,  through  their  charters,  the  foundations  of  corporate 
institutions  are  historical.  They  also  performed  a  similar 
service  for  liberty  in  the  parliamentary  war  against  Charles 
I.,  the  guilds  of  London  strongly  influencing  that  city  in  its 
opposition  to  the  crown  ;  and  the  tenacious  regard  in  which 
they  held  their  privileges  had  in  previous  reigns  frequently 
restrained  the  despotism  of  kings  and  nobles. 

As  the  English  guilds  were  unexposed  to  the  severe  struggles 
encountered  by  the  Continental  fraternities  from  the  patri- 
ciate, they  were  enabled  to  become  more  active  factors  in 

*  "  Guilds  and  Friendly  Societies,"  by  John  Malcolm  Ludlow. — Con- 
temporary  Review,  vol.  21,  pAge  554. 

f  "  The  object  of  the  early  craft-guilds  was  to  create  relations  as  if 
among  brothers,  and  above  all  things  to  grant  to  their  members  that 
assistance  which  the  member  of  a  f^imily  might  expect  from  that  family." 
Brentano,  "  On  Guilds,"  page  60. 

J  "  Encyclopaedia  Britannica."     Article,  "  Guilds." 


GUILDS  IN   MIDDLE  AGES.  205 

purely  industrial  development  than  those  of  France,  Italy  and 
Germany.  Mr.  Thorold  Rogers  *  discovers  that  the  singular 
prosperity  of  the  English  laboring  classes  in  the  fifteenth 
centurv  was  entirely  due  to  the  universal  association  of  labor, 
and  Mr.  Ludlow  f  estimates  that  these  associations  bore  the 
same  proportion  in  strength  and  numbers  to  the  population 
of  their  time  that  the  trade  unions  and  beneficiary  organiza- 
tions do  to-day.  Their  landed  wealth  must  have  been  rela- 
tively very  great,  especially  in  the  towns,  where  the  growth 
of  a  mercantile  aristocracy  favored  the  display  of  civic  im- 
portance and  pageantry.  The  twelve  great  London  com- 
panies that  have  survived  the  edicts  of  kings  and  parliaments 
have  now  an  annual  income  of  more  than  $2,500,000 ;  their 
plate  and  furniture  is  valued  at  $1,350,000,  and  when  we 
learn  that  $500,000  of  this  sum  is  spent  every  year  in  enter- 
tainments, the  source  of  those  wonderful  feasts  that  occa- 
sionally attract  the  attention  of  the  world  is  readily  accounted 
for-t 

It  is  not  surprising  therefore  that  such  a  magnificent  prey 
proved  a  stronger  temptation  than  the  easy  conscience  of 
Henry  VIIL  could  withstand.  Hardly  had  the  monasteries 
been  dissolved  when  the  lands  of  the  country  guilds  were 
swept  into  his  absorbing  exchequer,  and  the  colleges,  uni- 
versities and  public  schools  only  escaped  similar  spoliation 
by  the  death  of  the  great  confiscator.  The  English  workman 
thus  lost  in  the  same  way  as  the  Roman  freedman  the  heritage 
bequeathed  to  him  by  generations  of  labor,  and  it  is  a  curious 
circumstance  that  the  French  associations  should  have  passed 
these  and  all  other  dangers,  only  to  meet  their  doom  at  the 
hands  of  the  Constituent  Assembly,  at  the  moment  when  the 
monarchy  was  tottering  to  its  fall. 

In  addition  to  the  features  of  the  ancient  brotherhoods 
already  mentioned,  the  germs  of  many  characteristics  now 

♦  "  Work  and  Wages,"  page  565. 
f  The  Contemporary  Review,  vol.  21,  pnges  564-5. 
X  They  also  expend  $750,000  in  charities,  and  have  lately  made  some 
very  munificent  donations  for  the  purpose  of  technical  education. 


206  GUILDS    IN    MIDDLE   AGES. 

# 

pertaining  to  modern  trade  unions  is  clearly  perceptible. 
They  aided  their  sick  members  and  took  care  of  the  families 
of  the  decseased ;  they  supported  the  feeble  in  old  age,  and  in 
times  of  general  distress  or  scanty  employment  lent  money 
without  interest;  they  apprenticed  the  son  and  pensioned  the 
widow,  and  although  they  were  forbidden  in  England  ac- 
tively to  combine  for  the  purpose  of  increasing  wa^es,  their  in- 
direct influence  had  that  result.  No  work  was  allowed  to  be 
done  by  night,  thus  restricting  the  hours  of  labor ;  illegiti- 
mate children  were  not  permitted  to  enter  any  of  the  crafts, 
and  a  wholesome  morality  was  not  only  enjoined  but  required 
in  all  associates.*  They  maijitained  an  obstinate  struggle 
throughout  Europe  for  centuries  against  the  unpaid  competi- 
tive labor  of  serfs  and  bondsmen  until  bondage  disappeared, 
and  had  they  succeeded  in  the  attempt,  more  than  once 
feebly  made,  to  band  together  under  one  central  authority, 
the  political  complexion  of  civilization  must  have  been 
changed,  and  instead  of  owning  allegiance  to  kings  and 
presidents,  the  people  of  Europe  and  America  might  now 
have  been  acknowledging  the  sway  of  some  elected  master- 
craftsman. 

After  the  final  suppression  of  the  English  county  guilds  by 
Edward  VI.,  in  1547,  there  is  an  interregnum  of  about  120 
years,  when  they  again  reappear  under  the  more  homely  name 
and  garb  of  friendly  societies.  It  is  thought  that  there  is  no 
historical  gap  between  the  two,  and  that  records  will  yet  be 
found  by  means  of  which  the  transition  may  be  traced.  But 
whether  the  organizations  of  the  seventeenth  century  were 
the  old  guilds  in  a  new  form  or  a  new  expression  of  that  uni- 
versal desire  for  association  that  has  always  manifested  itself 
in  human  society,  they  had  lost  nearly  every  flavoring  of  the 
antique  crafts  and  were  merely  for  provident  and  beneficent 
purposes,  open  to  men  of  every  trade,  and  occupying  only 
one  of  the  many  spheres  filled  by  their  predecessors.  The 
modern  trade  unions,  which  are  a  nearer  counterpart  of  the 

*  For  full  information  on  these  points  see  "  Brentano  on  Guilds." 


LAWS  AGAINST  COMBINATIOxNS.  207 

ancient  combinations,  had  no  existence  until  the  introduction 
of  macliincry,  antl  its  offspring,  the  factory  system,  brought 
large  numbers  of  men  with  common  ideas  and  occupations 
into  industrial  relationship,  and  though  they  have  none  of 
the  picturesqueness  of  mediaivaiism,  no  legendary  connection 
with  knight-errantry,  romance  or  roundelay,  they  can,  if 
wisely  directed,  play  their  part  as  fully  in  the  age  of  steam  as 
their  prototypes  did  in  the  age  of  chivalry,  and  fight  the  in- 
dustrial battles  of  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth  centuries  as 
nobly  as  the  guilds  of  Magdeburg  did  in  the  thirteenth  and 
fourteenth. 

It  is  a  strange  commentary  on  the  freedom  of  the  freest 
nation  in  Europe,  that  for  500  years  the  right  of  workmen  to 
combine  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  higher  wages  was  de- 
nied in  England  by  stringent  laws.  "  The  motive  for  this 
repression  was  never  concealed.  It  was  designed  in  order  to 
increase  and  secure  rents  and  profits  at  the  cost  of  wages,"  * 
and  thus  the  lords  of  land  and  capital  were  legally  enabled 
for  their  own  aggrandizement  to  continue  the  Roman  policy 
of  paying  little  or  nothing  for  labor,  and  to  make  the  esca]>e 
of  the  laborer  from  his  industrial  servitude  an  impossibility. 
Evep  after  the  old  laws  were  repealed  in  i824,f  nearly  fifty 
years  elapsed  before  trade  unions  had  any  status  in  a  court  of 
justice,  and  they  were  still  hampered  by  all  kinds  of  vexatious 
discriminations  until  187 1,  when  the  last  unjust  prohibitions 
were  removed. 

From  this  brief  historical  summary  it  will  be  observed  that 
the  guilds  were  the  parents  of  both  modern  friendly  societies 
and  trade  unions.  The  progress  of  the  former  has  only  an 
indirect  bearing  on  the  labor  question,  inasmuch  as  they  foster 
kindly  feeling  and  encourage  provident  habits.  It  is  to  the 
latter  that  both  capital  and  labor  must  look  for  an  authorita- 
tive statement  of  labor's  desires,  for  the  accredited  represent- 

*  Thorold  Rogers,  •♦  Work  and  Wages,"  page  439. 

f  The  chief  one  of  these  was  a  statute  of  Edward  VI.,  by  which  "all 
confederacies  or  promises  of  workmen  concerning  their  work  or  wages, 
or  the  hours  of  the  day  when  they  should  work,"  was  prohibited. 


208  GUILDS   AND   TRADE   UNIONS. 

atives  through  whom  negotiations  must  be  conducted,  and 
for  the  executive  ability  honorably  to  carry  out  all  agreements. 
As  the  Hon.  Abram  S.  Hewitt  said  in  1878,  *'It  is  not  to  be 
disguised  that,  until  labor  presented  itself  in  such  an  attitude 
as  to  compel  a  hearing,  capital  was  not  willing  to  listen ;  "  * 
and  one  reason  of  its  unwillingness  was  the  absence  of  respon- 
sible heads  with  whom  to  discuss  the  subjects  at  issue.  A 
committee  representing  a  few  hundred  disaffected  men  is  an 
impotent  body  compared  with  one  accredited  by  a  trade  at 
large,  and  when  the  entire  membership  of  that  trade  speaks 
through  its  chosen  delegates  it  must  command  respect,  if  only 
from  the  magnitude  of  the  numbers  for  which  it  acts. 

The  first  good  result  of  trade  unions  has  therefore  been  to 
bring  capital  and  labor  on  a  plane  of  equality  as  regards  their 
forces.  It  is  no  longer  possible  to  govern  labor  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  Roman  maxim,  "Divide  et  impera."  Strength 
is  opposed  to  strength,  and  an  alliance  is  much  more  likely  to 
result  from  this  array  than  when  one  is  at  the  mercy  of  the 
other  and  dare  not  ask  for  justice.  Such  associations  as  the 
English  Amalgamated  Society  of  Engineers,  whose  authority 
extends  to  the  United  States  and  the  colonies,  are  not  going 
to  risk  their  accumulated  funds  and  the  waste  of  their  skill  by 
making  unreasonable  demands  on  their  employers,  and  are 
certain  to  take  a  more  conservative  view  in  any  dispute  that 
may  arise  than  an  irresponsible  body  of  workmen  swayed  by 
local  irritation  and  grievances. 

This  view  of  the  consolidation  of  labor  is  amply  supported 
by  facts.  As  Mr.  Trant  observes  in  his  treatise  on  "Trade 
Unions," f  "economy,  if  nothing  else,  would  dictate  such  a 
policy.  The  executories  of  trade  unions  have  been  taught  by 
experience  that  whenever  an  object  is  worth  striving  for,  a 
strike  is  often  the  worst,  and  always  the  most  expensive  way 
of  obtaining  it.     Strikes  as  a  rule  are  a  dernier  resort,  and 


*  Quoted  by  Professor  Ely,  "  The  Labor  Movement  in  America," 
paije  146. 

f  "  Trade  Unions,  their  Origin  and  Objects,  Influence  and  Efficiency," 
by  William  Trant. 


TRADE  UNIONS.  209 

are  more  frequently  discountenanced  by  the  General  Secretary 
than  approved  by  him.  Indeed  it  is  the  boast  of  most 
trade  union  secretaries  that  they  have  prevented  more  strikes 
than  they  have  originated."*  Of  the  great  English  associa- 
tions the  Amalgamated  Engineers,  with  an  income  in  1882 
of  $620,000,  spent  only  $4450  in  this  way.  In  1885,  out  of 
an  exi)enditure  of  more  than  $832,380  (most  of  which  was 
beneficiary),  but  $48,365,  or  about  5.8  per  cent.,  went  in 
strikes.  During  the  last  thirty-five  years  the  percentage  of 
expenditure  in  trade  dispute  has  been  only  3.86  per  cent,  out 
of  disbursements  amounting  to  $  12, 459, 000. f  The  Iron- 
founders,  with  an  income  of  $290,000,  expended  $1070;  the 
Amalgamated  Carpenters  $10,000  out  of  $250,000;  the  Tai- 
lors $2805  out  of  $90,000 ;  and  the  Stonemasons,  with  a 
membership  of  11,000,  notliing.  In  1882  seven  of  these 
societies  had  an  income  of  $1,650,000,  and  cash  balances  to 
credit  of  $1,800,000,  yet  their  entire  expenditure  in  support- 
ing disputes  was  only  about  $25,000.  It  is  estimated  that  99 
per  cent,  of  union  disbursements  have  in  late  years  been 
beneficiary,  and  that  only  i  per  cent,  has  been  used  in  indus- 
trial warfare.  Indeed  it  may  be  said  generally  that  the  Eng- 
lish artisans,  miners,  operatives,  and  many  classes  of  unskilled 
laborers  have  virtually  abolished  strikes  in  that  country,  and 
that  this  has  been  accomplished  solely  by  the  influence  of 
their  associations,  exercised  in  opposition  to  such  action  and 
in  favor  of  arbitration.  J 

♦  The  Grand  Master  of  the  Knij^hts  of  Labor  said.  March  8,  1886, 
that  since  the  ist  of  January  precedinj^,  the  Executive  Honrd  of  the  Order 
had  settled  350  cases  by  arbiiraiion,  which  otherwise  would  have  resulted 
in  strikes. 

f  Edward  W.  Bemis,  in  the  Political  Science  Quarterly^  June,  1887. 

X  In  1884  ten  of  the  leading  English  unions,  with  a  membership  of 
154,000,  expended  more  ihan  51,250,000,  of  which  sum  but  6  per  cent, 
was  in  supix)rt  of  strikes.  In  1877  ihe  President  of  the  English  Trades 
Unions'  Congress  (which  then  represented  700,000  members)  said,  in  the 
course  of  his  address  to  the  assembly  :  "  The  principle  of  ap|)eal  to  facts 
and  reasons  instead  of  brute  force  is  rational,  and  ^t  once  commends  itself 
to  the  judgment  of  men,"  and  this  official  declaration  of  the  views  of  the 
lal)oring  classes  has  been  since  accepted  as  a  cardinal  point  of  their 
policy. 

14 


210  LABOR   UNIONS. 

Thus  the  strongest  trade  societies  in  the  world  have  been 
enabled  to  prevent  strikes,  to  inaugurate  a  system  of  concilia- 
tion, and  to  assume  a  restraining  control  over  their  members, 
under  adverse  decisions  on  matters  of  importance ;  from 
which  it  is  evident  that  when  they  choose  to  exercise  it  they 
can  wield  a  vast  influence  for  good,  both  within  and  without 
their  organizations,  and  that,  should  they  accomplish  nothing 
else,  there  is  sufficient  reason  here  for  their  existence.* 

The  chaotic  condition  of  labor  unions  in  the  United  States 
is  but  the  repetition  of  a  process  through  which  the  English 
orders  had  to  pass.  They  are  not  so  well  organized  here  as 
there,  and  consequently  neither  control  their  members  as 
effectively  nor  command  such  a  ready  recognition  from  em- 
ployers. Yet  their  efforts  in  this  country  have  been  largely 
directed  to  the  abatement  of  disputes.  •  The  President  of  the 
Cigarmakers'  International  Union  testified  before  a  committee 
of  the  United  States  Senate,  that  in  the  three  years  preceding 
1883  his  union  had  prevented  more  than  300  strikes.  The 
great  Hocking  Valley  contest  was  undertaken  against  the 
advice  of  the  unions,  and  every  labor  organization  in  the 
United  States,  with  the  exception  of  the  Amalgamated  Asso- 
ciation of  Iron  and  Steel  Workers,  whose  constitution  seems 
rather  to  favor  than  to  suppress  conflict,f  has  declared  for 
arbitration,  in  preference  to  the  older  method  of  a  trial  of 
strength.  The  unsatisfactory  condition  of  American  labor 
unions  arises  from  many  causes,  chief  of  which  are  lack  of 
organization  and  compactness,  the  large  number  of  able 
workmen  who  will  not  subject  their  freedom  to  such  control, 


*  "That  trade  unions  protect  capital  as  well  os  labor  is  attested  by  the 
fact  that  nearly  all  the  disputes  between  capital  and  the  well-or<,'anized 
unions  are  characterized  by  an  entire  absence  of  violence  and  destruction 
of  private  property,  and  where  such  ouiragcs  have  occurred  it  can  be 
traced  directly  to  the  unorganized  and  uneducated,  of  whom  it  may  with 
truth  be  said,  'they  have  no  past  to  conserve,  nor  future  for  which  to  pro- 
vide.' "  L.  McIIugh,  Commissioner  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics 
of  Ohio,  in  "The  Labor  Problem."     New  York,  1886. 

t  See  appendix  to  Professor  Ely's  'The  Labor  Movement  in 
America." 


LABOR   UNIONS.  211 

and  the  neglect  to  make  admission  equivalent  to  a  certificate 
of  competency.  The  one  million  men — such  is  the  estimate — 
belonging  to  industrial  associations  in  tliis  country  are  at  best 
an  undrilled  army,  unskilled  in  either  the  science  of  attack 
or  defense,  badly  officered,  and  without  efficient  leadership. 
There  are,  it  is  true,  many  well-drilled  brigades  in  the  vast 
concourse,  and  these  have  given  tlie  only  stability  that  its 
ranks  possess.  A  large  majority  of  the  remainder  are  simply 
marshalled  mobs,  strongly  in  earnest,  predominated,  for  the 
most  part,  by  good  purposes,  but  with  an  ethereal  coherence 
that  is  constantly  being  dissipated  and  reformed,  and  with 
none  of  the  wise  and  cautious  direction  so  necessary  for  vic- 
tory. 

These  are  matters  that  can  only  be  remedied  by  time, 
patience,  and  hard  work.  Veterans  are  not  made  in  a  day. 
Principles  do  not  win  in  a  decade,  and  so  much  material  may 
require  years  for  its  consolidation.  It  is  scarcely  six  years 
since  the  first  confederation  of  organized  trade  and  labor 
unions  assembled  at  Pittsburg,  and  since  then  there  has  been 
a  great  gain  of  solidity  to  the  older  societies,  though  rendered 
less  apparent  by  the  unexampled  rush  of  recruits.  The  bulk 
is  still  formative,  but  its  plasticity  shows  a  constantly  harden- 
ing tendency,  and  it  might  as  well  be  accepted  now  as  here- 
after by  capitalists,  employers,  legislators,  and  the  nation  at 
large,  that  notwithstanding  disruptions  and  withdrawals, 
internal  dissensions  and  a  babel  of  clamor,  trade  unions 
and  labor  federation  are  with  us  to  remain,  and  act  a  part, 
and  the  controlling  part  in  the  industrial  government  of  the 
future.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  this  incoherency  will 
prevail  for  a  considerable  period  until  two-thirds  or  three- 
fourths  of  the  working  population  are  mustered  into  the 
ranks.  How  long  this  will  take  no  one  can  say,  but  the 
rapidity  with  which  even  the  odds  and  ends  of  industry  are 
organizing,  premises  that  the  day  is  not  so  far  off  as  many 
suppose. 

It  is  a  pertinent  inquiry  whether  it  would  not  have  been 
better  for  the  unions  to  have  placed  more  dependence  on 


212  LABOR    ORGANIZATIONS. 

material  than  numbers.  A  membership  in  the  ancient  trade 
guilds  was  an  assurance  to  the  world  of  proficiency  in  some 
particular  skill,  to  a  greater  degree  perhaps  than  a  physician's 
or  lawyer's  diploma  is  now.  Tiiey  were  enabled  to  maintain 
their  industrial  status  by  requiring  a  high  standard  of  work- 
manship, and  it  is  noticeable  that  such  societies  as  the  Typo- 
graphical Union,  and  the  Brotherhoods  of  Locomotive  Fire- 
men and  Engineers,  where  efficiency  is  one  of  the  tests  for 
admission,  wield  an  influence  wholly  disproportionate  to  their 
numerical  aggregate.  Eventually  every  organization  where  a 
test  can  be  applied  must  come  to  this,  and  if  in  the  higher 
trades  the  qualifications  for  membership  are  made  to  include 
faithfulness,  good  conduct  and  sobriety,  as  they  well  can  be, 
that  moral  advance  to  which  the  best  industrial  progression 
ever  tends  must  receive  an  impetus  that  will  be  felt  far  be- 
yond the  ranks  of  labor.* 

Labor  organizations  have  necessarily  a  twofold  import,  as 
they  are  viewed  by  the  employer  or  the  laborer,  and  it  is  but 
natural  that  the  former  should  look  upon  them  chiefly  as 
arbitrary  associations,  bent  on  interfering  with  his  business, 
making  demands  that  would  reduce  his  profits,  and  generally 
resolved  on  inciting  industry  to  disorder.  This  opinion  has 
unfortunately  had  much  to  sanction  it,  and  is  sufficient  to 
account  for  the  opposition  of  many  employers;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  capitalist  has  unwittingly  shared  in  the  ad- 
vantages of  union,  in  a  way  that  he  seldom  considers,  and  to 
a  much  greater  extent  than  is  supposed.  For  example,  the 
individual  employer  may  lose  something  by  having  his  work- 
people placed  on  a  parity  with  him  in  making  wage  contracts, 

*  Many  of  the  unions  have  already  strict  rules  against  drunkenness, 
and  the  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  Firemen  will  not  permit  its  members 
to  deal  in  intoxicants  on  pain  of  expulsion.  The  Brotherhood  of  Loco- 
motive Engineers  expels  from  membership  for  intoxication,  refusal  to  pay 
just  debts,  destroying  company's  property,  failure  to  provide  for  family, 
or  any  other  charge  of  parental  neglect.  Liquor  dealers  are  not  admitted 
into  the  Knights  of  Labor,  and  no  local  assembly  is  allowed  to  have  a 
social  gathering  where  liquor  is  sold.  The  United  Labor  Age,  one  of  the 
leading  organs  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  will  not  receive  advertisements 
from  brewers  or  in  any  way  countenance  the  liquor  traffic. 


LABOR   OKGA^•IZATIONS.  213 

but  if  the  movement  is  general,  as  it  must  be  wherever  there 
is  unity,  he  will  only  have  to  pay  standard  rates,  all  or  a  part 
of  which  has  to  be  repaid  by  the  consumer,  while  in  simplify- 
ing negotiations,  supplanting  strikes  by  arbitration,  and  de- 
veloping through  esprit  de  corps  even  a  minimum  standard 
of  efficiency,  he  becomes  no  inconsiderable  participant  in  the 
benefits  of  labor  alliance. 

Mr.  Thorokl  Rogers  has  expressed  this  idea  in  a  clearness  of 
diction  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  surpass.*  **  Employers," 
he  says,  **have  constantly  predicted  that  ruin  would  come  on 
the  great  industries  of  the  country  if  workmen  were  better 
paid  or  better  treated.  They  resisted,  and  have  resisted  up  to 
the  present  day,  every  demand  which  workmen  have  made  for 
the  right  of  association,  for  the  limitation  of  children's  and 
women's  labor,  for  the  shortening  of  hours,  for  the  abolition 
of  truck,  for  the  protection  of  their  workmen's  lives  and 
limbs  from  preventable  accidents This  misconcep- 
tion as  to  the  consequences  that  would  ensue  from  just  and,  as 
events  have  proved,  wise  concessions,  has  not  been  due  to  a 
cunning  selfishness,  but  to  the  natural  disinclination  which 
all  men  have  to  make  those  efforts  which  have  always  com- 
pensated the  loss  wliich  they  thouglit  they  foresaw,  and  have 
frequently  turned  it  into  a  gain.  For  it  is  a  remarkable  and 
an  indisputable  result  of  these  interferences  with  what  is  ap- 
parently free  action,  that  when  their  justice  or  necessity  has 
been  demonstrated,  and  the  change  or  reform  or  restraint  has 
been  adopted,  benefit  instead  of  injury  to  the  imperilled 
interest,  strength  instead  of  weakness,  have  been  the  conse- 
quences. The  concession  of  the  right  of  combination  was 
thought  to  be  an  infinite  peril,  and  the  workmen  have  gradu- 
ally learnt  their  proper  strength,  and  what  is  far  more  im- 
portant, the  strength  and  solidity  of  tiie  calling  in  which 
they  are  engaged,  and  the  profits  which  arc  required  in  order 
to  secure  its  continuity  and  their  employment.  They  are 
getting  to  know  what  is  the  point  at  which  cost  will  cripple 

*  "  Work  and  Wages,"  page  506. 


214  .        TO  PREVENT  UNDUE  COMPETITION. 

production,  and  may  be  safely  trusted  not  to  destroy  by 
excessive  exactions  that  by  which  they  live." 

The  main  object  of  trade  unions  is  of  course  to  limit  the 
competition  of  the  laborer  for  employment,  and  either  pre- 
vent the  reduction  of  wages  that  might  be  occasioned  by  the 
underselling  of  competing  manufacturers,  or  to  obtain  for 
their  members  a  larger  share  of  the  realized  value  of  the  pro- 
duct through  increase  of  wage  payment.  An  absolutely  fair 
share  could  only  be  allotted  on  the  principle  of  co-operation, 
but  putting  that  aside,  there  is  nothing  unreasonable  in  the 
workman's  demands  for  a  living  sufficiency  of  wages  when 
the  selling  price  of  the  manufactured  article  .permits  it,  or 
that  the  advance  should  come  from  the  profits  of  capital 
when  those  profits  are  excessive.  In  making  such  a  demand 
he  is  but  exercising  the  natural  right  of  self-preservation,  and 
it  ought  to  be  granted  as  freely  without  combinations  as  un- 
der the  semi-duress  of  unionism.  Assuming  too  that  labor  is 
a  commodity  subject  to  sale,  purchase  and  barter,  and  that 
wages  are  a  mere  matter  of  contract,  the  individual  possessors 
of  the  labor  commodity  are  fully  justified  in  combining  to 
enhance  its  selling  value  price,  or  to  withhold  it  from  market, 
if  they  can,  until  their  valuation  is  obtained  ;  for  if  it  is  to 
be  treated  as  merchandise,  its  owners  are  entitled  to  mercan- 
tile rights. 

There  is  yet  another  warrant  for  fair  payment  in  the  ele- 
mental principles  of  Christianity,  and  the  words  of  Scripture. 
"  Thou  shalt  not  muzzle  the  ox  that  treadeth  out  the  corn," 
has  a  trenchant  significance  when  coupled  by  Paul  with  the 
saying  of  Christ,  *'The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,"  and 
the  great  apostle  evidently  deemed  this  moral  and  Christ  law 
in  reference  to  the  laborer's  prior  and  full  recompense  of  such 
importance  as  to  call  for  its  repetition  in  several  different 
ways.*  There  can,  indeed,  be  no  misunderstanding  of  the 
plain  and  direct  inculcations  of  the  Bible  on  this  matter ;  its 
tender  regard  for  the  poor  and  the  oppressed  is  extended  in 

*  Sec  I  Cor.  9  :  9,  and  2  Timothy  2  :  6. 


TO  GAIN  FAIR  SHARE  OF  PROFITS.  215 

every  book  to  the  toiler,  and  one  of  its  most  terrible  denun- 
ciations is  uttered  against  those  who  keep  back  the  hire  of  the 
laborer.  The  whole  tenor  of  the  sacred  volume  in  relation 
to  dues  for  service  is  that  of  broad-handed  liberality.  **  What- 
soever is  right  I  will  give  you,"  said  the  lord  of  the  vineyard, 
and  this  is  the  foundation  of  the  Christian  equities  between 
employer  and  employed.  Neglect  of  these  principles  on  the 
one  side  has  made  trade  unions  necessary;  pushing  the 
demand  beyond  the  extremity  of  justice  on  the  other  has 
brouglit  manufacturers'  associations,  armed  for  resistance, 
into  being,  and  from  this  condition  has  proceeded  a  hostile 
feeling  that  will  require  years  of  honest  endeavor  to  convert 
into  friendship. 

In  combining  to  obtain  a  share  of  the  profits  on  produc- 
tion, and  in  restricting  competition  by  fixing  a  standard  for 
wages,  workmen  have  the  example  of  capitalists  and  em- 
ployers, who  have  seldom  hesitated  to  organize  for  the  same 
purposes.  It  is  an  universal  rule  on  the  stock  exchange  of 
the  world  to  prevent  competition  for  business  ainong  mem- 
bers by  having  a  fixed  scale  of  commission,  and  not  many 
years  ago  an  associate  of  a  western  stock  board  was  fined 
and  had  to  pay  ^^5000  for  executing  orders  one-eighth  per 
cent,  below  the  stipulated  rates.  This  was  a  practical  blow 
at  freedom  of  contract  among  capitalists.  The  United  States 
is  dotted  with  manufacturers'  associations  whose  ruling  mo- 
tive is  the  exaction  of  profit  on  their  wares  by  shortening  the 
laboring  year,  preventing  competition  and  limiting  produc- 
tion, and  the  formation  of  enormous  trusts  which  aim  to  con- 
trol the  selling  price  of  articles  of  prime  necessity  is  now  of 
constant  occurrence.  The  Western  Wrapping  Paper  Com- 
pany keeps  many  of  its  mills  idle  to  enhance  the  value  of  the 
remaining  product.  The  Central  Manufacturing  Company 
of  Boston,  a  combination  of  forty-one  tackmakers,  runs  its 
mills  at  half  time  for  the  same  object.  A  sugar  refinery  in 
San  Francisco  for  years  paid  a  rival  concern  subsidies,  vari- 
ously stated  at  from  ^75,000  to  ^100,000  per  annum,  as  an 
inducement  to  close  down,  and   the  same  firm,  by  arrange- 


216  COMBINATION   OF   MANUFACTURERS. 

ment  with  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  secured 
such  a  prohibitory  freight  rate  on  eastern  sugars  as  to  obtain 
entire  control  of  the  Pacific  coast  market.  It  is  generally 
believed  that  the  Vulcan  Steel  Mill  of  St.  Louis  received 
several  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  from  a  pool  interested 
in  rail-making  to  stop  manufacturing  rails;  the  Screw  Manu- 
facturers' combination  pays  an  English  firm  ^80,000  per  year 
to  withhold  its  productions  from  the  United  States ;  the  Nail 
Makers*  Association  recently  discharged  8000  workers  for  five 
weeks  in  order  to  keep  up  prices  ;  and  the  school-book  pub- 
lishers not  only  combine  to  double  the  prices  of  their  educa- 
tional wares  but  force  them  on  the  public  by  means  quite  as 
questionable  as  the  purchase  of  a  Broadway  franchise. 

A  president  of  the  Reading  Railroad  told  a  committee  of 
the  Pennsylvania  legislature  in  1875  **  that  every  pound  of 
rope  we  buy  for  our  vessels  and  for  our  mines  is  bought  at  a 
price  fixed  by  a  committee  of  the  roi)e  manufacturers  of  the 
United  States.  Every  keg  of  nails,  every  paper  of  tacks,  all 
screws  and  wrenches  and  hinges,  the  boiler  plates  of  our  loco- 
motives, are  never  bought  except  at  the  prices  fixed  by  the 
representatives  of  the  mills  that  manufacture  them.  Iron 
beams  for  our  houses  or  our  bridges  can  be  had  only  at  the 
prices  agreed  upon  by  those  who  produce  them.  Fire-bricks, 
gas  pipes,  terra-cotta  pipes  for  drainage,  every  keg  of  powder 
we  buy  to  blast  coal,  are  produced  under  the  same  arrange- 
ment. Every  pane  of  window  glass  in  this  house  was  bought 
at  a  scale  of  prices  established  exactly  in  the  same  manner. 
White  lead,  galvanized  sheet-iron,  hose  and  belting,  and  files 
are  bought  and  sold  at  a  rate  determined  in  the  same  way." 
This  list  might  be  extended  to  almost  every  article  of  produc- 
tion where  combination  is  possible,  and  to  others  where  ad- 
vantage is  taken  of  the  consumer  by  relentlessly  destroying 
opposition,  as  in  the  well-known  cas^e  of  the  Standard  Oil 
Company,  the  coal  combinations  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  gas 
and  water  companies  in  many  of  our  cities;  or  as  with  rail- 
road companies,  where  the  small  stockholders  are  despoiled 
by  *' contract  and  finance"  rings;  or  as  with  gold  and  silver 


COMBINATION   OF   MANUFACTURERS.  217 

mining  companies,  notably  those  of  Nevada,  where  tlie  mines 
are  continuously  assessed  during  unjjroductive  periods  for  the 
benefit  of  millionaire  quartz  mill  owners,  until  a  new  ore  body 
is  discovered,  when  it  is  simultaneously  found  that  a  majority 
of  the  shares  are  in  their  hands. 

Nor  is  this  all.  A  worse  form  of  combination  among  capi- 
talists that  has  always  had  the  sanction  of  commercial  moral- 
ity, and  without  which  stock  exchanges  would  be  shorn  of 
more  than  nine-tenths  of  their  business,  is  to  "corner"  food, 
fuel,  and  the  raw  materials  of  industry  in  order  to  give  them 
a  fictitious  value.  If  the  price  is  by  this  means  made  higher 
than  the  supply  warrants,  the  consumer  is  robbed,  and  if  lower, 
the  producer.  Yet  although  forestalling  has  for  years  been 
branded  as  a  legal  offence,  one  never  hears  of  its  condemna- 
tion by  the  moneyed  powers,  and  seldom  by  the  judicial. 
The  difference  between  combinations  of  masters  and  of  work- 
men is  in  fact  as  radical  as  any  two  things  can  be  that  have 
the  common  motive  of  profit  in  view.  With  the  former  the 
gain  inures  to  the  sole  benefit  of  the  employer  who  pockets 
all  the  profit  at  the  expense  of  the  public,  while  it  is  a  mani- 
fest injury  to  his  men,  as  they  are  frequently  subjected  to  en- 
forced idleness  in  order  to  restrict  production,  though  they 
receive  no  better  pay  when  at  work.  The  latter  seek  to  prevent 
body  and  soul  from  being  crushed  by  competition,  to  save  the 
insignificant  and  heli)lcss  human  unit  from  being  overwhelmed 
by  the  power  of  capital,  to  make  life  worth  living  to  their 
wives  and  children,  and  to  get  as  much  of  a  fair  and  just  re- 
turn for  the  additional  value  their  labor  has  given  to  the  sell- 
ing price  of  a  product  as  circumstances  will  allow.  When 
these  two  interests  conflict  it  is  unnecessary  to  ask,  whether  it 
is  for  the  benefit  of  the  world,  of  society,  of  religion,  that 
labor  or  capital  should  prevail. 

It  is  not  intended  to  convey  the  impression  that  all  manu- 
facturers* associations  are  formed  with  the  object  of  keeping 
down  wages,  or  unduly  to  increase  the  selling  price  of  goods. 
Many  have  no  other  purpose  than  rightful  self-protection 
against  legislative  interference  and  dishonest  customers,  or  to 


218  CHEAP   GOODS    OR   FAIR   PRICES. 

collect  information  concerning  foreign  markets  and  legiti- 
mately adjust  selling  prices  to  cost.  At  a  meeting,  for  exam- 
ple, of  the  sewing  silk  and  machine  twist  manufacturers  of 
the  United  States,  held  in  New  York,  January,  1887,  and 
representing  a  capital  of  ^30,000,000,  a  production  of 
$60,000,000,  and  the  employment  of  50,000  men,  it  was  re- 
solved that  in  consequence  of  the  advance  in  raw  silk,  10  per 
cent,  should  be  added  to  the  selling  price  of  products.  This 
was  a  judicious  step  in  the  interest  of  both  capital  and  labor, 
rendered  necessary  by  uncontrollable  causes,  and  very  different 
from  a  resolve  to  put  an  additional  10  per  cent,  on  products 
for  the  sake  of  a  profit  in  which  the  operative  was  not  to  share. 
Similarly  the  Potters'  Manufacturing  Association,  and  the 
Coal  and  Iron  Masters'  Association  of  England,  are  types  of 
organizations  representing  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  in 
capital  and  the  employment  of  tens  of  thousands  of  workers, 
which  are  kept  up  for  the  sole  purpose  of  looking  after  matters 
that  are  of  greater  importance  to  these  employers  than  any 
question  of  wages.  Their  special  sphere  is  the  economy  of 
processes  and  of  distribution,  and  in  it  they  perform  a  service 
to  labor  as  well  as  to  themselves.  It  is  obvious,  therefore, 
that  unions  of  men  and  of  masters,  each  distinctive  from  the 
other,  have  ample  oi)portunities  for  usefulness ;  but  that  when 
actuated  by  a  desire  for  undue  profit,  either  at  the  expense  of 
the  public,  or  their  co-factor,  or  by  tyranny  of  any  kind, 
they  can  just  as  readily  be  made  engines  of  oppression. 
There  is  room  for  both  in  harmony,  but  for  neither  in  selfish 
conflict,  and  ere  long  the  judgment  of  the  world  will  hold 
them  responsible  for  the  attainment  of  unity,  and  a  cessation 
of  the  reproach  to  industry,  government,  and  Christianity, 
that  the  disputes  between  Capital  and  Labor  have  so  long 
involved. 

The  preface  to  the  revised  constitution  of  the  National 
Amalgamated  Association  of  Iron  and  Steel  Workers  of  the 
United  States,  the  strongest  of  all  the  American  Trade 
Unions,  contains  a  pregnant  paragraph,  which  has  a  more 
direct  bearing  on  the  economics  of  the  labor  question,  as  it 


FAIR   PRICES.  '219 

affects  the  laborer,  llie  capitalist,  and  the  consumer  than  any 
other  purely  industrial  subject  that  could  be  mentioned,  and 
it  is  moreover  one  that  is  rarely  considered  either  in  the 
voluminous  pages  of  writers  on  industrial  economics,  or  in 
the  contemporary  discussions  of  employer  and  employed. 
After  claiming  that  there  is  no  good  reason  why  employers 
should  not  pay  a  fair  price  for  labor,  the  preamble  says,  **  If 
the  profits  of  their  business  are  not  sufficient  to  remunerate 
them  for  their  trouble  of  doing  business  let  the  consumer 
make  the  balance,"  that  is,  to  put  the  matter  as  plainly  as 
possible,  labor  has  a  right  to  fair  wages,  capital  a  right  to  fair 
remuneration,  and  the  public  purchaser  no  right  to  buy  any 
article  at  a  price  that  will  not  afford  these  producers  a  just 
compensation.  It  is  a  declaration  against  the  crying  sin  of 
cheapening  labor  below  its  living  possibilities,  against  the  de- 
sire to  profit  by  some  one's  toil  and  capital,  and  against  the 
policy  that  would  make  competition  between  the  laborer, 
competition  between  the  capitalist,  and  competition  between 
the  laborer  and  the  capitalist  the  ruling  industrial  law.  It 
sets  no  limitation  on  the  cheapness  that  results  from  the 
bounty  of  the  earth,  or  the  fruits  of  invention  ;  it  would 
create  no  artificial  scarcity  of  products  to  the  injury  of  the 
community  at  large,  but  simply  declares  that  whatever  addi- 
tional value  man's  labor  gives  to  a  material  must  be  added  to 
the  selling  price,  and  that  the  value  must  be  computed  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  natural  requirements  of  the  man  as  a  man, 
and  not  as  a  machine-being  of  muscles,  thews,  sinews,  and 
nerves,  detached  from  his  soul-self. 

This  is  a  subject  that  has  attracted  little  attention  from 
either  capitalist  or  laborer,  and  it  is  rarely  that  a  protest  is 
evoked  by  the  most  unfortunate  market  conditions  against  the 
wrong  of  underselling.  Competition,  with  its  inevitable 
consequences,  has  been  accepted  for  so  long  a  period  as  the 
necessary  condition  of  industrial  existence,  that  labor  is 
ground  between  the  upper  and  lower  millstone  of  money  seek- 
ing profit  and  the  public  demanding  cheap  goods ;  and 
in  many  instances  the  capitalist  is  incurring  a  similar  danger 


220  FAIR   PRICES. 

from  his  workmen  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  buyer  on  the 
other.*  **  So  far  as  I  know,"  writes  John  Ruskin  in  his  noble 
essay  **Unto  this  Last,"  "  there  is  not  in  history  record  of 
anything  so  disgraceful  to  the  human  intellect  as  the  modern 
idea  that  the  commercial  ,text,  *  Buy  in  the  cheapest  market 
and  sell  in  the  dearest,'  represents,  or  under  any  circum- 
stances could  represent,  an  available  principle  of  national 
economy."  And  elsewhere,  "Whenever  we  buy,  or  try  to 
buy  cheap  goods,  goods  offered  at  a  price  that  we  know  can- 
not be  remunerative  for  the  labor  involved  in  it ;  whenever 
we  buy  such  goods,  remember  we  are  stealing  somebody's 
Vlabor." 

^2>.V  Tl^is  evil  has  silently  grown  to  such  a  magnitude  that 
in  England,  the  profits  accruing  to  the  employer  of  labor 
have  been  reduced  to  a  minimum,  while  in  France,  Germany, 
and  the  United  States,  the  workman,  through  imperfect 
organization,  has  so  far  had  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the  pressure. 
Take  for  instance  the  boot  and  shoe  industry  of  Massa- 
chusetts: statistics  show  that  in  1882  the  average  earnings  of 
over  65,000  employes,  three-fourths  of  whom  were  men, 
amounted  to  only  $7.63  per  week,  while  the  profit  returns  on 
a  capital  exceeding  ;g2 2,600,000  is  computed  by  the  State 
Commissioner  of  Labor,  after  allowing  ruling  interest  rates, 
to  have  been  but  3.61 -|-  per  cent.  The  basis  on  which  this 
computation  is  made,  viz.,  a  deduction  of  ten  per  cent,  from 
gross  products  for  expense  account,  is  probably,  as  Mr.  Carroll 
D.  Wright  suggests,  too  large  for  this  particular  industry,  but 
it  will  serve  just  as  well  "  to  point  a  moral  "  as  if  the  figures 
were  absolutely  correct.  That  moral  is  that  the  workman 
could  not  fairly  look  to  his  employer  for  an  advance  of 
wages,  because  an  increase  in  that  item  of  exj)enditure  would 
have  turned  profit  to  loss,  and  had  the  entire  stated  profits  of 
capital  been  added  to  labor's  reward,  it  would  have  only 
raised  the  workman's  annual  earnings  some  ;^i 2.50,  or  from 


\ 


*  "  If  ye  bite  and  devour  one  another,  take  heed  that  ye  be  not  consumed 
one  of  another." — Galatians  5:  15. 


FAIR  PRICES.  221 

^397  to  ^409-50  per  capita.  But  a  slightly  higher  market 
value  would  have  made  an  enormous  difference.  Had  the 
factory  price  of  the  boots  and  shoes  produced  by  the  65,552 
people  included  in  this  return  been  5  per  cent,  more  than  it 
really  was,  the  net  profits  remaining  after  payment  of  $397 
to  each  for  wages,  and  6  per  cent,  to  capital  for  interest, 
would  have  been  $5,549,000  instead  of  an  actual  $818,900, 
so  that  capital  could  have  had  10  per  cent,  additional  for 
profit  and  each  worker  nearly  $38.00  more  per  annum  in 
w;iges.  It  is  not  suggested  that  this  would  be  a  fair  division, 
and  is  only  illustrative  of  the  argument  that  when  industiial 
capital  is  insufficiently  remunerated,  and  the  wage-earner 
insufficiently  paid,  the  difference  to  make  a  fair  profit  and 
fair  wages  must  come  from  the  consumer,  by  an  addition  to 
the  selling  price  of  the  manufactured  article.  Every  pur- 
chaser of  a  pair  of  boots  made  in  Massachusetts  during  the 
year  embraced  in  this  exhibit — assuming  tliat  $7.63  per  week 
is  not  a  sufficient  remuneration  for  adult  labor  in  that  state — 
therefore  got  better  value  than  the  amount  he  paid  warranted, 
and  some  one  had  to  supply  the  deficit. 

Here  is  a  weighty  motive  for  the  harmonious  association 
of  the  productive  forces.  The  retail  purchaser  has  little 
knowledge  of  the  actual  cost  of  an  article,  and  his  cheapen- 
ing efforts  are  nearly  always  based  on  the  idea  of  reducing 
the  middleman's  profits.  He  has  been  naturally  educated  to 
this  by  a  perception  of  the  mountainous  growth  of  implied 
value  that  occurs  in  many  wares  between  the  time  that  they 
pass  from  the  hands  of  the  workmen  and  their  lodgment  on 
the  storekeepers*  counters.  He  never  thinks  of  cheapening 
a  standard  article.  There  are  brands  of  goods  in  every  de- 
partment of  industry  for  which  the  asked  price  is  willingly 
paid,  so  that  while  the  desire  for  cheapness  is  constant,  it 
arises  nearly  altogether  from  ignorance  of  values.  If  the 
joint  producers  fix  that  value  so  as  to  cover  a  reasonable 
profit  on  the  capital,  and  living  expenses  for  the  workman, 
the  objection  will  not  come  from  the  consumer,  when  the 
matter  is  properly  represented  to  him.    A  very  large  majority 


222  GOOD  GOODS  AND   FAIR  PRICES. 

of  consumers  are  themselves  wage-earners,  and  have  such  an 
immediate  personal  interest  in  the  right  of  just  compensation 
that  they  will  readily  perceive  how  necessary  it  is  to  pay  a 
fair  price  for  manufactured  products  in  order  to  sustain  the 
principle  and  practice  of  better  remuneration  in  their  own 
pursuits. 

Associations  of  capitalists,  as  we  have-  seen,  find  no  diffi- 
culty in  establishing  the  selling  value  of  goods  so  as  to  obtain 
a  predetermined  profit — often  an  enormous  one — and  a  gen- 
eral alliance  of  capital  and  labor  in  any  particular  industry 
could  effect  a  similar  purpose  with  equal  ease.  In  some  cases 
production  would  have  to  be  limited,  but  that  any  evil  eff"ects 
would  follow  from  a  limitation  that  regulated  supply  by  de- 
mand is  not  obvious.  Glass-blowers  in  the  United  States 
cease  work  regularly  for  two  months  every  year,  in  order  to 
keep  up  wages  by  cutting  down  production,  yet  it  probably 
never  occurred  to  any  one  that  he  was  paying  an  unreasonable 
price  for  glassware  in  consequence  of  this  regulation.  If  they 
worked  the  entire  year,  and  the  demand  for  the  manufacture 
remained  stationary,  the  result  would  necessarily  be  a  glut  by 
the  production  of  about  one-sixth  in  excess  of  consumption. 
Prices  would  then  have  to  be  lowered,  and  afterwards  wages. 
Ultimately  large  quantities  of  the  product  would  be  forced 
on  the  market  at  a  trifle  above  cost,  so  that  neither  capital 
nor  labor  would  receive  an  adequate  compensation  for  their 
efforts.  This  is  an  instance  where  trade  unions  benefit  the 
employer  by  giving  stability  to  prices,  while  they  at  the  same 
time  establish  a  fair  remuneration  for  all  who  are  engaged  in 
the  occupation,  without  laying  a  burdensome  tax  on  the 
buyer. 

**A  partial  rise  of  wages,"  says  John  Stuart  Mill,*  *'if 
not  gained  at  the  expense  of  the  remainder  of  the  working 
class,  ought  not  to  be  regarded  as  an  evil.  The  consumer, 
indeed,  must  pay  for  it ;  but  cheapness  of  goods  is  desirable 
only  when  the  cause  of  it  is  that  their  production  costs  little 

*  "Principles  of  Political  Economy,"  Book  V,,  Chapter  X.,  Section  5. 


INTELLIGENT  ACTION.  223 

labor,  and  not  wliea  occasioned  by  that  labor's  being  ill  re- 
munerated." A  practical  application  of  this  doctrine  requires 
that  fair  wages  be  added  to  the  cost  of  production,  whether 
in  the  field,  the  mine,  or  the  factory;  and  that  when  the 
value  of  any  material  is  enhanced  by  transportation — as  is 
universally  the  case — the  labor  so  employed  shall  be  ade- 
quately remunerated  in  the  transi)ortation  charges.  This  is 
the  contention  of  the  iron  and  steel  workmen,  and  they  are 
supported  therein  by  that  natural  law  which  makes  the  wel- 
fare of  the  man  a  first  consideration,  and  all  else  subsidiary 
to  it.  The  smallest  living  entity  has  inherent  rights,  and  the 
most  minute  creature  a  personality  that  makes  it,  to  the  ex- 
tent of  its  powers,  a  lord  over  the  inanimate  world;  and 
man,  crowned  with  glory  and  honor  and  with  all  things  in 
subjection  under  his  feet,  must  not  be  pushed  from  his  high 
estate  by  his  own  handiwork,  and  become  a  secondary  con- 
sideration to  coal,  cotton,  iron,  or  any  of  the  complicated 
mechanism  which  his  genius  has  invented  for  their  transmuta- 
tion into  other  forms  of  use. 

The  educational  value  of  labor  organizations  need  not  be 
considered  here,  nor  is  it  necessary  to  make  more  than  a 
passing  reference  to  those  economic  and  beneficiary  features  % 
which  are  now  a  part  of  the  older  unions.*  In  the  former 
category  are  included,  besides  the  prevention  of  destructive 
competition,  the  adjustment  of  disputes  with  employers,  and 
the  protection  of  wages,  together  with  the  tendency  that  must 
ultimately  result  from  combination,  in  the  direction  of  indus- 
trial partnerships,  and  toward  both  forms  of  co-operation, 
distributive  and  productive.  The  reduction  of  the  hours  of 
labor,  partial  as  it  yet  is,  has  been  largely  aided  by  the 
unions,  and  is  a  necessary  preliminary  to  moral  reform  and 
higher  education.  The  advanced  state  of  public  opinion  on 
the  sanitary  supervision  of  factories,  the  prevention  of  acci- 


*  For  full  information  on  these  points  see  Professor  Ely's  "  The  Labor 
Movement  in  America." 


224  INTELLIGExNT   ACTION. 

dents  from  machinery  and  in  hazardous  occupations  is  also 
largely  due  to  the  influence  of  trade  societies,  and  it  is  cer- 
tain that  when  the  wage  question  is  measurably  adjusted 
these  matters  will  receive  closer  attention.  The  migration  of 
labor  to  more  promising  fields,  generally  assisted  to  do  so  by 
society  funds,  often  renders  the  congestion  of  the  unemployed 
in  any  particular  place  less  acute,  and  in  protesting  with 
reiterated  persistency  against  the  undesirable  flood  of  immi- 
gration that  has  been  pouring  simultaneously  into  the  eastern 
and  western  gates  of  the  Republic,  labor  unions  have  per- 
formed a  service  that  will  one  day  be  gladly  acknowledged  by 
men  of  all  parties  and  all  creeds.  Finally,  by  voluntary  and 
compulsory  insurance,  the  payment  of  sick  and  death  bene- 
fits, and  the  extension  of  relief  to  the  needy,  they  have  incor- 
porated the  ethics  of  charity  with  the  principles  of  social  and 
political  economy,  and  elevated  the  standard  of  humanitarian 
obligation  throughout  all  civilized  lands. 

The  friends  of  trade  unions,  in  common  with  the  opponents 
of  those  organizations,  can  point  to  a  long  list  of  mistakes, 
follies,  and  crimes  for  which  they  are  directly  responsible. 
In  tliis  respect  they  differ  in  no  way  from  other  aggregations. 
Legislatures  and  Senates  selected  from  the  sons  of  promise  of 
the  State,  by  the  deliberate  opinion  of  their  fellow-citizens, 
assemblies  composed  of  men  who  from  conspicuous  ability  are 
leaders  in  their  sections,  and  governing  bodies  whose  mem- 
bers are  educated  from  birth  to  rule,  have  committed  and  are 
constantly  committing  errors,  stupidities  and  wrongs  that  fill 
the  historians  of  their  actions  with  a  perpetual  wonder  at  the 
little  wisdom  that  is  required  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  a  na- 
tion. "All  free  governments  are  managed  by  the  combined 
wisdom  and  folly  of  the  people,"  said  President  Garfield,  and 
it  is  an  axiom  that  neither  the  Executive,  the  Judiciary,  nor  the 
Legislature  of  a  State,  under  representative  institutions,  can 
be  better  than  the  source  from  which  they  receive  their  autho- 
rity. It  is  unfair  therefore  to  expect  that  an  assembly  of 
workingmen,  impelled  by  a  deep  sense  of  real  or  supposed  in- 
justice, half-educated,  uninformed  and  composed  of  many 


BENEFICIAL  INFLUENCES.  225 

nationalities,  should  l)e  conservative,  free  from  passion,  wise 
and  deliberate.  'I'hcse  qualities  arc  not  to  be  found  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  the  House  of  Commons,  or  the 
Reichstag.  When  labor  organizations  are  properly  mobilized 
they  will  outgrow  many  of  their  present  faults.  Experience 
will  make  them  wise  in  things  as  yet  but  feebly  understood, 
and  they  will  then  be  strong  to  repress  lawlessness,  with  a 
severity  born  of  the  knowledge  that  it  is  their  worst  and  dead- 
liest enemy. 

The  use  made  of  the  boycott  by  the  unions  is  scarcely  less 
objectionable  than  the  "blacklisting"  by  corporations;  both 
are  opposed  to  the  spirit  and  to  the  law  of  righteousness. 

Tlie  mobilization  of  labor  and  capital,  especially  in  this 
country,  is  proceeding  swiftly,  and  the  power  of  trade  unions, 
for  good  or  for  harm,  is  being  constantly  manifested  by  a  suc- 
cessive increase  of  movement.  Tracing  the  course  of  these 
bodies  from  their  earliest  history  and  carefully  weighing  their 
influence  upon  society,  the  verdict  must  be  as  of  all  human 
institutions.  Nevertheless  there  are  very  few  where  the  pre- 
ponderance ^  benefit  has  so  largely  outbalanced  the  loss,  or 
where  the  gain  has  been  so  evenly  distributed  among  the  sons 
and  daughters  of  toil.  "  The  labor  movement,  as  the  facts 
would  indicate,"  says  Professor  Ely,*  "  is  the  strongest  force 
outside  the  Christian  Church  making  for  the  practical  recog- 
nition of  humin  brotherhood;  and  it  is  noteworthy  that,  at  a 
time  when  the  churches  have  generally  discarded  brother  and 
sister  as  a  customary  form  of  address,  the  trade  unions  and 
labor  organizations  have  adopted  the  habit.  And  it  is  not  a 
mere  form.  It  is  shown  in  good  offices  and  sacrifices  for  one 
another  in  a  thousand  ways  every  day,  and  it  is  not  confined 
to  those  of  one  nation.  It  reaches  over  the  civilized  world  ; 
and  the  word  international  as  a  part  of  the  title  of  many 
unions,  and  the  fact  that  their  membershij)  is  international, 
are  quite  as  significant  as  they  appear  to  be  at  first  sight. 
Since  the  labor  movement  became  powerful,  the  laborers  of 

♦  "  The  Labor  Movement  in  America,"  page  138. 
15 


226  BENEFICIAL   INFLUENCES. 

Germany,  France,  America  and  England,  and  of  other  coun- 
tries, too,  feel  that  they  are  members  of  one  great  family, 
and  that  they  must  work  together  for  their  complete  emanci- 
pation." 

The  possibilities  suggested  by  this  idea  of  a  universal 
brotherhood  are  almost  too  vast  for  words.  Should  it  ever  be 
practically  or  even  partially  realized,  wars  of  aggression  would 
cease,  and  the  victories  of  the  nations  become  those  of  peace. 
Industry  in  alliance  with  capital  would  give  law  to  mankind 
and  our  streets  no  more  be  filled  with  complaining  workers, 
starved  in  mind  and  in  body.  With  this  satisfaction  of  man's 
external  needs,  his  inner  nature  would  so  ripen  as  to  be  a  ready 
recipient  of  spiritual  truths,  for  Christ  is  oftener  rejected  from 
the  bitterness  of  poverty  and  friendlessness  than  from  the 
conviction  of  the  intellect.  Those  who  are  forsaken  of  man 
believe  they  are  forsaken  of  God.  Cold  will  blister  as  well  as 
heat,  and  indigence  is  as  favorable  a  soil  for  materialism  as 
luxury.  Thus  secure  in  the  brotherhood  of  man,  and  joyfully 
acknowledging  the  great  Fatherhood,  millions  of  dwarfed 
souls  who  now  pass  through  the  vestibule  of  eternity  in  shiv- 
ering wretchedness,  would  develop  their  latent  possibilities 
for  glory,  and,  joining  in  the  acclaim  of  the  universe,  thank 
the  Maker  of  all  for  the  breath  of  their  existence.  It  is  grand 
to  live  if  we  feel  that  we  are  to  live  forever,  forever  rejoicing 
in  the  Creator's  eternal  bounty ;  but  it  is  terrible  to  live  in 
doubt  or  indifference  when  crushed  by  the  calamities  of  life's 
surroundings.  If  the  brotherhood  of  man  implied  in  a  true 
alliance  of  labor  will  relieve  this  weight  so  as  to  permit  a  little 
seed  of  God's  truth  to  fructify,  it  will,  through  Christ,  throw 
open  the  portals  of  heaven  to  imprisoned  multitudes,  and 
with  the  beloved  disciple  they  can  cry  aloud  in  the  ecstasy 
of  a  soul  revelation  that  they  see  a  new  heaven  and  a  new 
earth,  and  that  the  old  ones  are  passed  away. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    DUTIES   OF  WAGE-SERVICE. 

"Study  to  show  thyself  approved  unto  God,  a  workman  that  needeth 
not  to  he  ashamed." — 2  Tim.  2:15. 

**  It  seems  very  certain  that  the  world  is  to  grow  better  and  richer  in  the 
future,  however  it  has  been  in  the  past,  not  by  the  mngniticent  achieve- 
ments of  the  highly  gifted  few,  but  by  the  patient  faithfulness  of  the  one- 
talented  many."-  'Phillips  Brooks. 

The  first  and  principal  duty  of  any  one  who  is  paid  to  do 
a  thing  is  to  do  it ;  the  next  to  do  it  as  well  as  the  ability  at 
his  command  will  enable  him.  "  Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth 
to  do,  do  /■/  with  thy  might,"  or,  as  Paul  says,  "  not  with  eye 
service  as  men  pleasers ;  but  in  singleness  of  heart,  fearing 
God." 

These  simple  rules  comprise  the  whole  duty  of  personal 
service,  but  the  widening  relations  of  industry  have  so  en- 
larged the  reciprocal  obligations  of  the  human  family  that  to 
the  injunction  of  the  apostle  must  be  added  all  the  other  fun- 
damental principles  of  Christianity  that  have  been  given  for 
our  government,  as  they  are  applicable  to  the  conditions  they 
were  intended  to  cover,  and  without  any  distinction  of  per- 
son or  class.  The  obligation  of  the  worker  therefore,  like 
that  of  the  employer,  includes  the  entire  moral  code,  though 
his  temptations,  shortcomings  and  offences  will  naturally 
vary  in  kind  and  degree  from  those  to  which  the  master  is 
subject,  as  a  consequence  of  the  difference  in  their  worldly 
positions. 

In  the  same  way  also  that  a  real  Christianity  requires  of  the 
employer  more  than  a  letter  fulfilment  of  his  contract,  so  the 
mere  faithful  exchange  of  a  certain  number  of  hours'  labor 
for  so  much  pay  does  not  cancel  the  general  obligation  that 

(227) 


•k 


228  CONTRACT   AND   OBLIGATION. 

the  wage-receiver  owes  to  the  person  who  hires  him,  nor  ex- 
clude his  moral  accountability  in  other  directions.  Yet  the 
first  duty  of  an  employe  must  always  be  to  earn  his  day's 
wages,  and  if  he  wilfully  falls  short  of  this,  it  is  a  breach  of 
the  command,  "  Thou  shalt  not  steal."  Similarly  if  he  shirks 
his  labor,  others  will  have  to  make  it  up  and  thus  suffer  from 
his  unfairness  by  unrecompensed  exertion,  besides  sharing  in 
the  general  discredit  that  will  attach  to  the  many  for  tlie  fault 
of  one.  It  is  true  that  these,  forms  of  neglect  are  not  very 
common  under  the  modern  system  of  divided  industry,  and 
that  they  generally  carry  with  them  speedy  detection  and 
punishment,  but  a  modification  of  them  is  very  prevalent  and 
manifests  itself  in  the  absence  of  the  old-fashioned  loyalty  of 
purpose  that  bent  every  energy  to  the  duty  in  hand ;  that 
took  a  great  pride  in  noble  workmanship  and  made  the  em- 
ployer's interests  for  the  time  the  workman's.  It  is  signi- 
ficant too  that  the  word  "  loyalty  "  has  nearly  been  expunged 
from  our  modern  vocabulary,  and  that  the  allegiance  to  per- 
son and  ideas,  the  constancy  to  duty,  the  heart-service  as  well 
as  the  hand-service  it  implied,  appear  also  to  have  vanished 
from  the  industrial  world  with  their  verbal  equivalent.  In 
their  place  is  a  looseness  of  bond  that  may  sit  easy  on  the 
worker,  but  which  can  never  really  supply  the  principle  it  has 
superseded.  In  the  hurry  and  rush  of  affairs  faithfulness  has 
become  a  neglected  quality,  or  if  regarded  at  all  is  considered 
akin  to  that  despised  virtue,  humility.*  Could  more  of  it  be 
imparted  to  the  ranks  of  toil  there  would  be  fewer  inconsid- 
erate masters,  a  stronger  cohesion  of  capital  and  labor,  and  a 
much  greater  personal  interest  taken  by  employers  in  their 
workmen  than  at  present.  The  magnitude  of  modern  indus- 
trial operations  forbids  the  return  of  the  individual  relation- 


*  "  The  total  absence  of  regard  for  justice  or  fairness,  in  the  relations 
between  the  two,  is  as  marked"  on  the  side  of  the  employed  as  on  that  of 
the  employers.  We  look  in  vain  among  the  working  classes  in  general 
for  the  just  pride  that  will  choose  to  give  good  work  for  good  wages;  lor 
the  most  part  their  sole  endeavor  is  to  receive  as  much,  and  return  as  little 
in  the  shape  of  service,  as  possible." — "  Mill's  Political  Economy,"  Book 
4,  Chapter  7,  Section  4. 


UNREASONING   HOSTILITY.  229 

ship  existing  under  the  old  form  of  domestic  labor,  but  atten- 
tion to  duly  will  always  be  noticed  in  the  large  as  well  as  the 
small  establishment,  and  those  who  have  deserved  it  will 
with  equal  certainty  hear  as  many  words  of  approval  as  when 
master  and  man  lived  under  the  same  roof-tree  and  ate  at  the 
same  table. 

It  is  no  doubt  true  that  a  very  large  majority  of  wage- 
receivers  perform  their  allotted  work  in  a  satisfactory  manner, 
and  that  in  many  occupations  they  do  it  under  merely  nomi- 
nal supervision.  And  as  the  harsh  employer  of  fiction  exists 
more  frequently  in  fiction  than  in  actual  life,  so  the  untrust- 
worthy workman,  dishonest  as  to  his  labor,  wasteful  of  his 
material,  and  generally  careless  of  his  charge,  cannot  by  any 
possibility  be  accepted  as  a  type.  The  competition  of  skil- 
ful and  experienced  men  for  employment  forbids  this,  and  if 
that  alone  were  insufficient,  fellow- workmen  will  not  i)ermit 
their  own  interests  to  be  jeopardized  by  continuous  disregard 
of  duty.  It  is  not  within  but  without  the  shop  that  the  wrong- 
doing of  the  wage-earner  takes  its  most  culpable  form.  While 
working  at  the  bench  he  may  be,  and  nearly  always  is,  a  fair- 
minded  man,  honestly  doing  his  duty  to  the  full  extent  of  his 
ability,  cheerful,  compliant,  obedient  to  instruction,  and  free 
from  the  animosity  of  class.  But  when  he  has  laid  down 
his  tools  and  lost  his  individuality  by  association,  he  may, 
and  often  does,  become  arbitrary  and  unjust,  exacting  in  de- 
mand, and  regardless  of  the  rights  of  others.  Selfishr.ess 
asserts  itself,  and  his  own  interests  assume  gigantic  dimen- 
sions while  those  of  his  employer  shrink  into  impercepti- 
bilities. 

This  twofold  character  is  a  peculiarity  of  human  conduct. 
The  business  tyrant  may  be  liberal  and  exemplary  in  his 
home  life  ;  commercial  dishonesty  can  coexist  with  scrupulous 
domestic  probity,  and  the  family  despot  may  leave  most  of 
his  bad  qualities  behind  as  he  steps  into  the  office  or  on 
'change.  We  all  have  more  paradoxes  in  our  natures  than 
can  be  reasonably  accounted  for,  and  the  workman  in  his 
industrial  relations  is  no  exception  to  this  rule.     It  is  outside 


230  UNREASONING   HOSTILITY. 

of  the  shop  that  the  troublesome  ideas  of  right  and  wrong 
grow  dim,  and  the  equity  that  governed  unchallenged  within 
is  dethroned  by  the  monarch  of  trade  caste,  trade  privileges, 
and  trade  tyranny.  Then  labor,  now  million-numbered,  de- 
claims against  capital  with  little  knowledge  and  many  words, 
and  magnifies  its  own  office  at  the  expense  of  all  things  else. 
Its  co-factor  in  production  is  rhetorically  relegated  to  the 
position  of  absolute  uselessness,  or  utterly  condemned  as  the 
natural  foe  of  labor  and  all  the  virtues.  The  man  who,  for 
reasons  of  his  own,  refuses  to  join  the  union  is  denounced  as 
an  enemy  of  society,  the  right  of  other  laborers  to  earn  a 
living  is  taken  away,  and  the  willing  boy  who  seeks  to  learn 
a  trade  is  told  that  he  is-  asking  a  greater  privilege  than  the 
freedom  of  choice  in  a  free  land  entitles  him  to  do.  These 
it  must  be  observed  are  not  merely  the  opinions  and  actions 
of  that  small  minority  aptly  termed  **  impossibilists,"  but 
are  general  expressions  on  the  labor  problem  in  the  labor 
journals  and  at  labor  meetings,  resulting  either  from  a  very 
one-sided  study  of  industrial  questions  or  utter  ignorance 
of  the  laws  on  which  industrial  equity  is  based  and  produc- 
tion rendered  profitable.  These  opinions,  too,  honestly  held, 
are  daily  gaining  strength  in  the  propaganda  of  socialism. 
It  is  unfair  to  class  socialism  with  anarchy,  yet  it  is  unfor- 
tunate for  its  adherents  that  every  anarchist  is  a  socialist. 
Both  would  effect  a  complete  change  in  the  social  system, 
the  one  by  peax:eful  revolution,  the  other  by  fire  and  carnage; 
but  we  must  not  let  our  abhorrence  of  the  tiger-thirst  of 
anarchy  prejudice  us  to  some  of  the  truths  that  underlie  the 
strivings  of  socialism.  It  can  never  solve  the  economic  diffi- 
culties that  confront  mankind.  It  would  redeem  man  through 
society,  instead  of  society  through  man.*  It  is  destructive 
of  individualism  and  personal  liberty.f     It  wrongly  assumes 

*  I*  Socialists  do  not  sufficiently  realize  that,  in  order  to  arrive  at-a  bet- 
ter ofder  of  things,  the  men  who  are  called  to  establish  and  maintain  it 
must  themselves  be  made  better,  and  that  the  first  step  is  to  purify  and 
elevate  current  ideas  as  to  duty  and  right. '^—^.  de  Laveleye. 

f  "  The  land  of  ancient  wealth,  of  poets,  painters,  sculptors,  philoso- 


SOCIALISM.  231 

that  labor  is  the  only  source  of  value.  It  converts  the  state 
into  an  industrial  bureaucracy.  In  restricting  private  owner- 
ship and  concentrating  the  productive  mechanism  under  state 
control,  it  eliminates  every  incentive  to  ambition  and  im- 
provement through  the  hope  of  gain.  In  its  strange  alliance 
with  materialism — doubly  strange,  because  its  own  motives 
are  altruistic — it  is  one  of  the  most  active  opponents  of 
Christianity;  but  notwithstanding  all  this,  and  even  stronger 
indictments,  there  still  remain  behind  those  great  realities, 
the  claim  of  the  individual  on  society  and  the  natural 
brotherhood  of  man. 

Nor  must  we  hold  socialism  responsible  for  the  wild  crimes 
of  anarchy.  Its  aim  is  indeed  to  change  the  existing  order 
of  things,  and  in  the  different  shades  of  opinion  maintained 
by  its  advocates  they  may  merge  at  the  lowest  point  into  the 
redemption  of  society  by  bomb  and  torch.  These,  however, 
are  not  the  views  of  its  most  numerous  followers.  Saint- 
Simon's  **  New  Christianity,"  Fourier's  "  Theory  of  Uni- 
versal Unity,"  Louis  Blanc's  *' Organization  of  Labor,"  and 
Lassalle's  **  System  of  Acquired  Rights,"  far  outweigh  in  their 
teachings  the  violence  of  Prudhon  and  Karl  Marx.  The 
better  fruits  of  Owen's  and  Maurice's  labors  remain  with  us, 
and  more  than  compensate  society  for  the  poison  of  inter- 
nationalism. Nor  is  it  likely,  notwithstanding  the  unthink- 
ing talk  of  many  otherwise  sober-minded  men,  that  the  doc- 
trines of  ultra-proletarians  will  ever  gain  sufficient  ascendency 
to  control  the  actions  of  responsible  trade  unions.  The  bal- 
lot-box is  an  effective  safeguard  in  the  two  Anglo-Saxon 
nations.  Bismarck  has  voluntarily  conceded  some  of  the 
points  that  socialism  has  sought  to  obtain  in  Germany,  and  a 
government  that  for  the  first  time  is  in  accord  with  the  best 
sentiments  of  France,  will  no  doubt  find  a  peaceful  way  to 


phers,  was  Athens  with  her  individualism  and  her  |5ersonal  freedom,  not 
Sparta  with  the  repressive  barbarism  of  her  socialism.  Wealth,  power, 
progress,  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  numl>er,  all  material  prosperity 
and  intellectual  vigor,  are  the  children  of  a  true  individualism." — "  Studies 
in  Modern  Socialism  and  Labor  Problems,"  by  T.  Edwin  Brown,  D.  D. 


232  ANARCHISM. 

Still  the  cry  of  her  impractibles.  When  the  state  can  safely 
extend  its  functions,  it  will  be  done.  Governments  every- 
where are  carefully  and  slowly  undertaking  new  duties,  as 
evidenced  in  three  different  lands  by  state  insurance,  postal 
telegraphs,  and  the  gradual  extirpation  of  the  saloon.  Rapid- 
ity of  communication  makes  centralized  authority  more  po- 
tent than  formerly,  and  wherever  experience  shows  that  the 
general  good  is  largely  advanced  by  new  provinces  of  state 
control,  we  may  anticipate  that  they  will  be  assumed  without 
any  disturbance  of  the  general  social  system.  Charti§m 
seemed  very  formidable  in  its  day,  yet  nearly  all  of  its  once 
thought  revolutionary  demands  have  been  peacefully  con- 
ceded and  society  still  exists  in  England,  stronger  than 
before.  JThe  substitution  of  the  principle  of  association  for 
competition,  provided  that  it  is  done  by  conviction  and  not 
by  arms,  by  the  free  will  of  the  majority  and  not  by  forcible 
revolution,  involves  none  of  the  terrors  to  civilization  that 
many  impart  to  it,  and  practically  that  is  all  there  is  in  the 
ideas  of  state  socialism.*  So  while  the  methods  by  which  it 
would  attain  this  end  are  delusive  and  come  in  such  a  ques- 
tionable shape  that  the  timid  may  well  fear,  strong  men,  who 
examine  reasonably  and  thoughtfully,  are  not  likely  to  blanch 
and  tremble.* 

After  making  this  distinct  separation  between  socialism 
and  anarchism,  it  must  be  admitted  that  there  is  cause  for 
fear  in  the  latter.  Through  past  neglect,  carried  down  almost 
to  the  verge  of  the  present,  the  cities  of  civilization  have 
become  breeding- warrens  for  a  class  of  hereditary  prole- 
tarians, whose  condition  is  such  as  to  incite  and  almost 
justify  a  natural  warfare  on  all  human  institutions.  Hunger 
and  disease,  cold  and  misery,  the  absence  of  every  comfort 
that  they  see  others  enjoy,  the  suppression  of  spiritual  motive, 
and  the  cultivation  of  the  lowest  animalism,  all  this  for  gen- 
eration after  generation,  with  the  results  intensified  by  trans- 


*  The  United  States  Consular  Reports  show  very  conclusively  that 
socialism  is  prevalent  in  Europe  in  proportion  to  the  want  of  education 
and  lowness  of  moral  tone. 


ANARCHISM.  233 

mission,  has  raised  a  foe  within  our  walls  to  whom  revolution 
may  bring  amendment,  but  can  scarcely  further  impoverish, 
or  steep  in  deeper  hopelessness.  Here  is  the  soulless  monster 
of  our  own  creation,  born  of  indifference  and  neglect,  of 
formal  religion,  and  disregard  of  God's  command,  at  which 
society  has  reason  to  tremble.  Here  is  the  fruit,  in  due  and 
proper  season,  that  commerce  and  governments  have  har- 
vested of  their  materialism,  and  those  who  have  examined 
closely  say  it  will  be  fortunate  if  we  can  uproot  our  crop 
without  a  return  of  the  tocsin  days  of  Paris,  ere  the  master- 
slaughterer  of  Corsica  had  learned  to  mow  with  his  artillery. 
And  were  it  not  that  honest,  contented  labor  stands  as  a 
shield  between  the  upper  and  lower  classes,  our  fears  would 
have  still  more  urgency.  Therein  is  the  safeguard.  Rank 
shades  so  evenly  into  rank  as  to  present  a  uniform  gradation, 
without  lines  of  separation,  and  though  the  divergence, 
measured  from  the  extremes,  is  that  of  primaries,  the  blend- 
ing is  continuous.  The  small  farmer,  the  employed  artisan, 
the  homesteader,  the  school,  the  library,  the  savings  bank 
and  the  meeting-house  stand  between  the  men  who  have 
nothing  and  those  who  have  all,  keeping  them  apart,  and 
thus  the  fulfilled  duties  of  the  community  become  its  pre- 
servers, as  the  neglected  ones  are  its  menace.  The  wage- 
earner  who  can  put  his  industrial  knowledge  to  good  account 
knows  that  he  has  nothing  to  gain  by  a  violent  upheaval,  and 
when  fairly  remunerated  looks  for  further  improvement  in  his 
condition  solely  through  his  own^personal  efforts.  He  knows 
that  the  only  contest  between  labor  and  capital  is  for  the 
share  of  profit  each  shall  receive,  and  though  he  may  inveigh 
more  than  the  occasion  requires,  he  is  not  going  to  declare 
war  on  all  existing  institutions  because  the  division  is  not 
made  with  absolute  equity.  His  arraignments  are  not  in- 
tended for  literal  interpretation,  but  many  do  read  them  so, 
and  a  sympathy  with  lawlessness  is  thus  ascribed  to  him  that 
is  as  foreign  to  his  real  ideas  as  to  his  real  interests.  It  is  the 
immediate  duty  of  labor  to  curb  its  utterances  on  this  subject, 
and  repress  a  violence  of  speech  that  is  an  incentive  to  vio- 


234  ARBITRARY   MEASURES. 

lence  of  action.  It  should  show  itself  worthy  of  the  new 
powers  it  has  attained  by  allaying  instead  of  exciting  class 
antagonism,  and  by  making  common  cause  with  capital 
against  an  enemy  who  would  destroy  all  liberties  in  one 
general  ruin. 

The  hostility  of  associated  labor  to  non-affiliates,  and  the 
bitterness  with  which  the  quarrel  is  pursued  into  the  workshop 
so  as  to  make  the  employer  a  party  to  it,  is  the  onus  of  a  grave 
and  true  complaint  by  capital  against  labor  organizations.  It 
is  the  tendency  of  trade  unions  to  create  an  artificial  uni- 
formity by  driving  men  of  unequal  ability  into  the  ranks,  and 
then  not  content  with  compelling  the  employer  to  pay  all  alike, 
require  him  to  engage  only  unionists.  Should  he  attempt  to 
exercise  freedom  of  choice  by  selecting  the  best  workmen 
irrespective  of  their  affiliations  he  is  too  frequently  answered 
by  boycotting  and  strikes,  while  those  men  who  are  willing 
to  work  are  dispossessed  of  their  right  to  do  so  by  actual 
violence. 

This  arbitrary  domination  has  done  more  than  anything 
else  to  bring  trade  unions  into  disrepute,  and  to  antagonize 
employers,  who  in  the  first  instance  were  not  perhaps  un- 
friendly to  the  principles  of  association.  It  is  a  course  op- 
posed alike  to  common  sense  and  justice,  and  while  we  all 
have  much  to  learn,  not  only  in  regard  to  our  duties,  but  also 
as  to  our  interferences,  the  very  first  lesson  that  labor  should 
commit  to  heart  is  that  every  man  is  at  perfect  liberty  to  make 
what  contracts  he  will  for  the  legitimate  use  of  his  ability, 
without  any  consultation  with  others  of  the  trade  as  to  the 
extent  of  his  remuneration.  Craft  association  carries  with  it 
no  privileges  opposed  to  individual  liberty.  The  legal,  politi- 
cal, and  industrial  status  of  all  who  prefer  to  remain  outside, 
is  precisely  the  same  as  those  within  the  unions,  and  the  in- 
dividual is  entitled  to  every  protection  that  society  can  give 
whether  he  battles  for  bread  singly  or  in  company.  The  old 
time  tyranny  of  wealth  and  rank  seldom  showed  itself  more 
abhorrent  than  does  this  new  discovery  of  labor  in  the  art  of 
oppression,  and  it  could  seek  no  surer  way  of  destroying  its 


LABOR   MONOPOLY.  235 

own  influence  and  losing  the  position  it  Has  attained,  than  by 
persisting  in  its  foolisli  policy  of  force  towards  neutral  workers 
and  neutral  employers. 

Another  point  to  be  considered  in  this  connection  is 
the  attempt  to  make  a  monopoly  of  labor.  The  monopoly 
of  capital  is  on  everybody's  tongue,  and  though  it  is  easy 
to  see  that  there  is  no  analogy  between  the  rights  of 
men  and  the  rights  of  money,  there  is  a  line  beyond  which 
self-protection  becomes  selfishness.  To  associate  for  de- 
fense is  one  thing ;  to  associate  for  oppression  or  greed, 
another.  When  the  unions  say  to  skilful  men,  *'  If  you 
do  not  belong  to  us  you  shall  not  work  with  us;"  to  the 
employer,  **  If  you  hire  any  one  who  is  not  a  member  of 
our  organization  we  will  neither  work  for  you  nor  allow 
others  to  do  so,"  and  to  the  boy  expectantly  waiting 
for  a  chance  to  take  his  first  step  to  independence 
and  manhood,  "We  will  not  let  you  learn  this  trade," 
they  assume  prerogatives  that  even  the  state  does  not 
claim. 

No  serious  justification  has  ever  been  attempted  even  by  the 
unions  of  their  position  in  this  matter  towards  employers  and 
non-unionists,  but  a  plausible  argument  is  sometimes  urged  in 
favor  of  a  limitation  of  apprentices,  on  the  ground  that  it  is 
necessary  to  control  the  supply  of  skilled  labor  in  accordance 
with  what  the  demand  may  be.  This  is  in  reality  a  plea  for 
a  monopoly  of  labor  and  one  that  might  be  advanced  with 
equal  reason  by  the  professions.  The  supply  of  lawyers  and 
physicians  is  far  in  excess  of  the  demand,  yet  it  would  be  con- 
sidered a  gross  attack  on  both  community  and  individual 
rights  if  the  members  of  these  vocations  were  to  close  the 
colleges  of  law  and  medicine  lest  past  graduates  should  be  ex- 
posed to  a  future  competition  that  might  reduce  fees.  If  we 
accept  the  presentation  made  by  labor  in  this  behalf,  it  must 
also  be  admitted  that  the  owners  of  manufacturing  establish- 
ments are  empowered  by  natural  law  to  crush  out  every  new 
competing  enterprise,  and  so  the  reign  of  industrial  war  would 
be  perpetuated  indefinitely.     As  Mr.  Bolles  says  in  his  work 


236  LABOR  MONOPOLY. 

on  **The  Conflict  between  Labor  and  Capital,"  *  ''To  de- 
clare these  associations  to  be  for  the  benefit  of  the  working 
population,  when  they  are  only  for  the  benefit  of  a  class,  is  a 
cheat.  They  are  not  unions  at  all.  They  are  merely  class 
societies  instituted  for  the  benefit  of  a  particular  class  of  work- 
men. All  workmen  are  equally  entitled  to  a  living,  and  no 
one  has  a  right  to  say  that  another  shall  remain  idle.  This  is 
directly  contrary  to  the  object  of  creating  trade-union  socie- 
ties. The  state,  indeed,  may  claim  a  paramount  right  over 
apprentices  for  purposes  of  education  or  public  defense,  but 
so  far  as  the  working  classes  are  concerned,  no  one  has  a  right 
to  control  the  work  of  another ;  in  other  words,  no  one  has  a 
better  right  to  monopolize  work  than  a  manufacturer  has  to 
monopolize  the  production  of  a  particular  thing." 

The  avowed  purpose  of  the  trade  unions  to  restrict  skilled 
labor  has  been  so  far  successful  that  the  American  boy  is  now 
almost  out  of  the  field  and  the  place  he  should  occupy  is  filled 
with  foreigners.  Certain  trades  are  entirely  in  their  hands. 
Cabinet-makers  are  nearly  all  Germans,  so  are  working  jew- 
elers ;  carpenters  are  generally  of  foreign  birth,  yet  so  great 
is  the  demand  for  first-class  workmen  that  good  artisans  find 
it  profitable  to  take  advantage  of  the  busy  seasons  in  both 
Europe  and  America  by  crossing  the  ocean  every  year.f 
Thus  while  the  rights  of  labor  are  promulgated  from  every 
corner  and  a  thousand  thunderbolts  of  oratory  are  daily  hurled 
against  monopoly  in  every  shape,  the  most  precious  of  those 
rights  is  systematically  violated,  and  a  heartless  injustice  is 
deliberately  elevated  to  the  position  of  a  cardinal  principle. 

It  is  evident  from  all  this  that  the  unions  are  greatly  astray 
in  their  ideas  of  what  constitutes  liberty  and  equity.  They 
do  not  yet  understand  that  every  man  has  a  right  to  labor  for 
whom  he  will,  at  what  price  he  will,  and  that  the  employer 
has  the  corresponding  right  of  determining  whom  he  will  em- 
ploy and  upon  what  terms.     They  need  enlightenment  on 


*  Pages  107,  108,  109. 

•j-  Report  of  New  York  Commissioner  of  Labor, 


CONFLICTINQ   INTERESTS.  237 

the  indefeasible  privilege  that  appertains  to  young  and  old 
of  selecting  an  occupation,  and  engaging  in  it  without  any 
other  restriction  than  the  law  imposes.  They  require  to  be 
taught  that  it  is  unfair  for  inferior  ability  to  exi)ect  the  same 
pay  as  higher  skill,  and  that  the  only  influence  they  must  use 
to  gain  adherents  is  moral  suasion.  Finally,  in  common  with 
other  divisions  of  society,  whether  in  units  or  in  hundreds  of 
tiiousands,  they  need  the  lesson  that  self-interest  is  rarely  the 
best  interest,  and  that  it  is  well  to  "  Look  not  every  man  on 
his  own  things,  but  every  man  also  on  the  things  of  others." 
We  are  to  **  Let  nothing  be  done  through  strife."  If  in- 
terests apparently  clash,  there  is  a  remedy  in  the  moral  law. 
ffriie  foundation  of  the  gospel  is  the  reconciliation  and  union 
of  man  with  God ;  the  foundation  of  the  law,  the  harmony 
and  union  of  man  with  man.  I  For  this  was  the  law  given,  for 
this  were  the  commandments  through  Moses,  and  for  this  the 
great  commandment  of  Christ.  It  is  their  separation  from 
human  conduct  that  makes  our  actions  contentious,  selfish 
and  tyrannical,  our  thoughts  intolerable  and  our  lives  unlov- 
able. Therefore  if  trade  unions,  manufacturers'  associations 
and  other  societies  endeavor  to  order  their  affi\irs  on  any  prin- 
ciples that  ignore  the  duty  of  man  as  contained  in  the  Scrip- 
tures the  result  will  inevitably  be  discord  and  enmity,  envy- 
ing and  strife,  confusion  and  evil  work.  **But  the  wisdom 
that  is  from  above  is  first  pure,  then  peaceable,  gentle,  and 
easy  to  be  entreated,  full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits,  without 
partiality,  and  without  hypocrisy.  And  the  fruit  of  right- 
eousness is  sown  in  peace  of  them  that  make  peace." 

Were  it  not  a  constant  experience  in  the  history  of  nations, 
of  associations,  and  of  the  family,  it  would  seem  incredible 
how  little  the  painfully  acquired  knowledge  of  the  past  is  ac- 
cepted by  the  present.  The  warning  **  dangerous"  may  be 
displayed  at  every  corner  of  the  old  pitfalls;  the  parent,  wise 
from  experimental  trial,  may  point  out  to  his  son  with  the 
earnestness  of  bitter  remembrance  how  slippery  the  foothold 
on  certain  paths,  and,  in  despite,  a  new  generation  will  re- 
peat the  national  follies  of  former  times,  and   the  boy  un- 


238  STRIKES. 

mindfully  seek  to  test  himself  against  snares  that  none  escape 
harmless. 

If  any  one  fact  has  been  established  by  the  experience  of 
ninety  years,  it  is  the  uselessness  of  strikes  as  a  means  of 
obtaining  a  desired  end.*  Not  their  absolute  futility;  for 
some  strikes  succeed  and  others  indirectly  accomplish  their 
object,  but  their  general  uselessness  as  a  weapon  of  aggression, 
their  costliness  and  the  disproportionate  results  achieved  com- 
pared with  the  sacrifices  involved.  A  writer  who  has  made 
a  special  study  of  this  subject  says  that  "  The  path  of  Eng- 
lish industry  is  strewn  with  tom.bstones  marking  ruinous  and 
ineffective  struggles  of  labor,"  and  that  "the  bread-winners 
of  America  never  made  a  dollar  by  striking."  f  Mr.  Carroll 
D.  Wright,  whose  official  province  it  has  been  to  examine  the 
question  in  detail,  affirms  that  "  strikes  generally  prove  power- 
less to  benefit  the  condition  of  the  wage  classes,"  |  and  Mr. 
Thorold  Rogers  says,  "  Strikes  have  so  seldom  been  success- 
ful that  a  doubt  has  been  expressed  whether  the  rise  in  wages, 
fortunately  an  accomplished  fact,  has  not  been  due  entirely 
to  demand,  and  in  no  case  to  the  combination."  §  These 
opinions  agree  with  Mr.  Thornton's  judgment  that  in  "severe 
and  protracted  struggles  the  masters  have  invariably  come  off 
conquerors,"  yet  "in  all  the  intervals  between  their  victories 
the  masters  have  been  continually  giving  way."  || 

If  figures  are  ever  eloquent  as  pleaders  or  deterrents,  the 
array  which  tells  the  story  of  labor's  conflicts  with  capital 
ought  to  be  considered  so.  In  1877  out  of  191  strikes  in  the 
United  States  nearly  all  were  failures.     In  1878  out  of  277 

*  "  Millions  of  dollars  of  wages  have  been  sacrificed  in  the  United 
States  during  the  last  five  years  by  unionists  without  any  corresponding 
gain.  What  is  the  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  these  facts?  Clearly 
this  :  that  strikes  do  not  pay.  In  the  most  favorable  event  they  are  a  very 
costly  remedy.  When  a  strike  proves  ineffectual  the  loss  is  total,  without 
any  saving.  Even  when  the  end  is  gained,  often  the  advantage  is  not 
equal  to  the  loss  incurred.  The  victory  is  a  barren  one." — Bolles,  "  The 
Conflict  Between  Capital  and  Labor,"  page  140. 

f  Daniel  J.  Ryan. 

X  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  Massachusetts,  1880. 

^  "  Work  and  Wages,"  page  41 1. 

II   "  On  Labor,"  pages  229,  230. 


STRIKES.  239 

only  4  were  successful  and  17  were  compromised.  Of  159 
strikes  recorded  as  having  occul-red  in  Massachusetts  during  a 
jH-'riod  of  55  years  only  18  absolutely  succeeded,  while  109 
were  utterly  resultless.  *  A  similar  investigation  by  the  Penn- 
sylvania Bureau  of  Labor  covering  46  years  shows  that  out  of 
152  strikes  in  that  state  45  were  successful,  66  a  failure,  and 
the  remainder  eitlier  comi)romised  or  undetermined.  Of  610 
investigated  by  the  Census  Commissioner  during  the  year 
1880  the  results  of  369  were  ascertained,  and  of  these  the 
unusually  large  proportion  of  143  were  successful,  156  unsuc- 
cessful, and  70  compromised.  During  the  ten  years  ending 
1879  there  is  a  record  of  2352  strikes  in  Great  Britain,  and 
though  the  result  is  known  in  but  a  small  number  of  cases,  it 
is  sufficient  to  confirm  the  rule  of  ill  success.  Bradstreet's 
tables  show  that  in  1886  59  strikes,  lasting  one  week  or  more, 
involved  374,000  employes  in  an  average  idleness  of  four 
weeks,  and  that  estimating  earnings  at  $9.00  per  week,  the 
wage  loss  amounted  to  $13,460,000.  Thirty-seven  of  these 
strikes  were  total  failures,  the  men  returning  to  work  at  former 
wages  and  under  the  pre-existing  conditions ;  of  the  remainder 
many  were  temporarily  successful  in  effecting  a  time  reduc- 
tion, but  within  six  months  the  length  of  the  laboring  day 
had  been  restored  in  nearly  every  instance.  The  United 
States'  Commissioner  computes  that  the  loss  of  wages  from 
this  cause  in  1880 — figured  on  the  basis  of  so  many  days*  idle- 
ness— was  about  $13,000,000.  The  New  York  coal-handlers' 
strike,  which  commenced  in  January,  1887,  by  the  resistance 
of  200  men  to  a  reduction  of  2^/^  cents  an  hour  in  their  pay, 
involved  at  the  height  of  the  trouble  fully  40,000  workmen. 
About  $3,000,000  was  lost  in  wages,  the  city's  export  trade 
suffered  to  the  amount  of  $3,380,000,  and  the  consumers  of 
coal  were  taxed  $700,000  by  its  rise  in  price.  The  men  who 
struck  were  replaced  by  others,  and  the  original  wage  reduc- 
tion was  carried  out.f 

♦  See  Report  of  Bureau  of  Labor,  Massachusetts,  1880. 
f  The  loss  by  strikes  to  the  productive  industry  of  Great  Britain  since 
1870  is  stated  to  have  been  ipore  than  $200,000,000. 


240  STRIKES. 

It  is  estimated  that  when  the  question  at  issue  involves  an 
increase  of  5  per  cent,  in  wages,  and  the  strike  succeeds,  it 
requires  one  and  three-fifths  years  of  work  at  the  extra  rate  to 
make  up  the  loss  of  one  lunar  month's  wages,  and  many 
strikes  that  are  memorable  in  industrial  annals  have  extended 
over  several  months.*  Nor  does  the  financial  injury  inflicted 
on  capital  and  labor  comprise  the  sum  of  the  disaster.  With 
the  exception  of  war  there  is  no  single  thing  under  human 
control  that  produces  such  general  demoralization,  for  in  the 
train  of  its  attendant  evils  may  nearly  always  be  found  intem- 
perance, violence,  riot,  hatred,  and  a  bitterness  of  feeling 
that  is  kept  alive  by  defeat  and  unallayed  by  success.  "  What- 
ever good  is  accomplished  by  these  struggles,"  Mr.  Ryan  ob- 
serves,f  "  is  paid  for  at  a  cost  and  sacrifice  which  never  brings 
adequate  returns."  They  are  microcosms  of  national  bel- 
ligerency conducted  with  the  animosity  of  civil  warfare. 
"Every  large  strike  in  this  state,"  Mr.  Wright  says,J  'Mias 
increased  the  criminal  lists  of  the  city  or  town  where  it  has 

occurred During  the  first  twelve  weeks  of  the  last 

Fall  River  strike  one  hundred  and  four  spinners  were  arrested 
for  various  offences,  of  whom  about  seventy-one  were  actual 
strikers."  The  great  labor  outbreak  of  1877,  which  spread 
like  an  epidemic  over  the  country,  was  followed  by  robbery, 
arson,  riot,  and  a  massing  of  vagabondage  hitherto  unknown 
in  America,   and  since  the  introduction  of  dynamite  as  a 


*  The  loss  of  I  lunar  month's  wages  will  require  to  make  it  up  i|  years 
of  work  at  the  extra  rate. 

The  loss  of  2  lunar  months'  wages  will  require  to  make  it  up  3|^  years 
of  work  at  the  extra  rale. 

The  loss  of  3  lunar  months'  wages  will  require  to  make  it  up  4^  years 
of  work  at  the  extra  rate. 

The  loss  of  6  lunar  months'  wages  will  require  to  make  it  up  9|  years 
of  work  at  the  extra  rate. 

The  loss  of  12  lunar  months'  wages  will  require  to  make  it  up  19^  years 
of  work  at  the  extra  rate. 

The  loss  of  12^  lunar  months' wages  will  require  to  make  it  up  20 
years  of  work  at  the  extra  rate. — "Journal  of  the  Statistical  Society," 
vol.  24,  page  501. 

•j-  "Arbitration,"  page  lo. 

I  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  Massachusetts,  1880. 


LOSS  FROM  STRIKES.  241 

factor  in  the  solutioi)  of  political  and  social  difficulties,  it 
rarely  happens  that  a  settlement  is  effected  before  its  use  has 
been  invoked. 

With  such  a  history  and  such  results  it  certainly  seems  that 
labor  ought  to  be  under  heavy  provocation  before  resorting 
to  its  last  ap|)eal.  Yet  many  strikes  are  as  causeless  as  that 
of  the  English  coal-miners  against  a  better  safety-lamp,  or 
that  of  the  chain-makers  of  Staffordshire  in  defiance  of  an 
Act  of  Parliament  requiring  ships'  cables  to  be  of  stronger 
straining  power.  The  enormous  increase  of  strikes  is  also 
suggestive  of  precipitancy  and  recklessness.  In  the  state  of 
New  York  alone  they  jumped  from  222  in  1885  to  1900  in 
1886,  not  all  or  nearly  all  of  which  could  have  been  pro- 
duced by  legitimate  grievances.  Ignorance,  distrust  and 
tyrannical  motives  must  have  been  the  incentive  for  a  large 
number  of  them,  and  many  were  evidently  undertaken  with- 
out the  simplest  regard  for  expediency,  to  say  nothing  of 
right. 

From  60  to  70  per  cent,  of  all  labor  disputes  have  their 
origin  in  wage  disagreement.  The  men  frequently  agitate  for 
an  advance  without  knowing  anything  of  the  conditions  of 
trade,  and  oblivious  of  the  fact  that  when  there  is  competi- 
tion the  manufacturer  does  not  determine  the  price  at  which 
he  sells  his  goods,  and  therefore  cannot  fix  his  profits.  A 
strike  for  more  wages  than  the  selling  price  of  the  manufac- 
tured article  warrants,  or  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  others 
from  obtaining  employment,  or  to  depose  the  employer  from 
the  management  of  his  capital,  is  as  much  an  infringement 
of  Christian  law  on  the  part  of  the  laborer  as  the  withholding 
of  fair  wages  by  the  master.  In  all  such  instances  there  is  a 
failure  to  apply  the  principles  of  Christian  obligation,  and  as 
moral  like  physical  transgression  entails  its  own  retribution, 
the  result  is  that  society  is  constantly  fretted  by  a  disordered 
industrial  system. 

Although  most  strikes  are  from  their  inception  bad  in 
policy  and  inefficient  as  remedies  for  the  real  or  supposed 
unfairnesses  in  which  they  originate,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
16 


242  LOSS   FROM   STRIKES. 

that,  like  war,  they  are  sometimes  the  last  and  only  resort  of 
labor.  When  arbitration  fails,  or  is  rejected,  when  the 
injustice  is  so  glaring  that  a  continued  submission  would  be 
to  forfeit  manhood,  the  only  recourse  is  to  cease  work ;  but 
even  then  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  be  more  than  a 
severance  of  industrial  relations,  and  not  an  act  of  open  hos- 
tility as  at  present. 

During  the  great  strikes  of  1877  a  Pennsylvania  coal- 
worker  said  :  **  We  have  for  a  year  done  men's  work  on  two 
meals  of  mush  per  day,  and  a  bit  of  dry  bread  for  our  din- 
ners, and  we  have  learned  to  endure  a  great  deal.  We  will 
eat  the  grass  in  the  fields  before  we  will  go  to  work  again  for 
less  than  we  demand."*  At  that  time  few  of  the  coal- 
laborers  were  earning  more  than  $25  per  month,  many  not 
more  than  $10,  and  even  these  small  sums  could  not  be  laid 
out  to  the  best  advantage,  because  the  men  were  compelled  to 
purchase  their  necessaries  at  the  company  stores.  Tlie  coal- 
handlers  at  Bergen  Point,  N.  J.,  were  only  able,  by  the  most 
exhaustive  toil,  to  earn  from  60  to  70  cents  per  day.  The 
Weehawken  stone-quarriers,  in  the  same  state,  complained 
that  with  the  utmost  endeavor  they  could  make  but  50  cents 
per  day ;  and  in  the  Newark  silk  mills,  men  who  after  work- 
ing twenty  years  at  their  trade  were  in  receipt  of  ^7  per 
week,  had  that  pittance  cut  down  15  per  cent.  The  coal- 
laborers  employed  by  the  Philadelphia  and  Reading  Railroad 
stated  that  many  of  them  were  making  but  ^5  for  fifteen 
days*  labor,  that  some  veins  were  being  worked  which  yielded 
absolutely  no  pay,  and  that  their  families  had  not  tasted  meat 
for  a  year,  the  only  food  they  could  afford  being  Indian 
meal. 

A  later  parallel  to  these  cases  is  that  of  the  English  chain- 
makers'  strike  in  the  "Black  Country. "f  In  this  particular 
trade  most  of  the  masters  admitted  that  the  wages  paid  were 
needlessly  unfair,  but  as  others  refused  to  concede  an  advance 


*  See  "Appleton's  Annual  Cyclopedia,"  1877,  page  427. 
t  May,  1887. 


REASON   FOR  STRIKES.  248 

the  operatives  were  compelled  in  self-defense  to  call  out  all 
hands  until  a  new  scale  of  payment  was  accepted.  The 
special  commissioner  of  an  English  newsi)aper,  sent  to  in- 
vestigate the  dispute,  reported  tiiat  "a  single  woman  in  the 
pride  of  her  strength,  by  working  twelve  hours  per  day, 
*  might '  make  seven  shillings  a  week,  out  of  which  she 
would  liave  to  pay  for  fuel — say  three  shillings;  leaving  four 
shillings  for  net  earnings.  15ut  to  make  tliis  tremendous  sum 
she  must  make  one  hundred-weight  of  short-link  chain,  that 
is,  3600  links  for  four  shillings.  A  dog-chain  that  sells  for 
eighteen  pence  is  made for  one  penny."  The  ad- 
vance desired  would  have  enabled  a  muscular  woman  to  earn 
eight  shillings  in  a  working  week  of  sixty  hours  and  a  man 
from  thirteen  to  fifteen  shillings;  yet  though  **  employer 
after  employer  acknowledged  the  inadequacy  of  their  earn- 
ings and  signified  his  adherence  to  the  amended  scale,"*  the 
heartlessness  of  a  few  nullified  their  concession  and  made  a 
continuation  of  the  struggle  imperative. 

As  slavery  is  worse  than  war,  so  an  acceptance  of  the  con- 
ditions of  life  imposed  by  these  master  chain-makers  of 
Worcestershire  and  mine-owners  of  Pennsylvania  would  be 
a  greater  ^ralamity  to  the  community  than  the  evils  that  fol- 
low industrial  strife.  The  right  of  withstanding  oppression 
can  never  be  taken  away,  and  though  its  exercise  may  not 
always  be  wise,  when  the  alternative  is  submission  to  slow 
starvation,  when  a  long  day's  strength  and  skill  are  insuffi- 
cient to  procure  the  primary  requirements  of  the  body,  self- 
defense  is  impelled  by  self-preservation  and  becomes  a  duty. 
The  Christian  obligation  of  labor  to  capital  does  not  require 
the  sacrifice  of  any  natural  right.  It  is  an  order  of  nature 
that  each  one  shall  strive  for  his  own  advancement,  and  if 
that  advancement  is  promoted  by  abstention  from  labor  until 
toil  is  fairly  remunerated,  there  is  no  infringement  of  the 
divine  law.  In  this,  as  in  all  other  matters,  Christianity  is  a 
protector  of  human  rights.     It  checks  the  power  of  wealth, 

♦  Birmingham  Daily  Post, 


244     CHRISTIANITY    THE   PROTECTOR    OF   HUMAN   RIGHTS. 

subjects  authority  to  the  control  of  justice,  and  accords  to  the 
poorest  laborer  the  same  claims  on  the  opportunities  of  exist- 
ence that  are  given  to  those  born  to  riches  and  command. 
Its  assignment  of  stated  duties  contemplates  no  forfeiture  of 
inlierent  claims,  no  obedience  to  tyranny,  no  abatement  of 
manhood.  On  the  contrary  one  of  its  objects  is  to  reveal 
certain  beneficent  rules  applicable  to  human  conduct,  a  con- 
formity with  which  will  increase  the  sum  of  happiness,  be- 
sides tending  to  social  freedom  and  the  truest  forms  of  man- 
liness. It  tells  the  toiler  that  his  condition  is  not  to  be  bet- 
tered by  idleness,  strife,  or  forcible  takings  from  wealth; 
that  though  inequality  is  a  primordial  law,  devised  for  man's 
benefit  and  necessary  for  his  progress,  aspirations  and  happi- 
ness, the  difference  between  rich  and  poor  is  but  a  temporary 
condition,  to  be  regarded  by  neither  as  of  undue  importance, 
and  finally  it  desires  that  remembering  this  they  should  meet 
together  in  unity  as  brethren  of  one  father,  having  common 
interests,  common  weaknesses,  and  a  common  inheritance. 


CHAPTER  XIL 

CHRISTIANITY   AND    LABOR. 

"And  there  was  delivered  unto  him  ihe  hook  of  the  prophet  Esnias.  And 
when  he  had  opened  the  book,  he  found  the  phice  where  it  was  written,  The 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  liccause  lie  halh  i^nointeri  me  to  preach 
the  gospel  to  the  poor;  he  halh  sent  me  to  heal  nie  broken-hearted,  to 
preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind, 
to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised :  to  preach  the  acceptable  year  of 
the  Lord.  And  he  closed  the  l)ook,  and  he  gave  //again  to  the  minister,  and 
sat  down.  And  the  eyes  of  all  them  thai  were  in  the  synagogue  were 
fastened  on  him.  And  he  began  to  say  unto  them,  This  day  is  this  scrip- 
ture fulfilled  in  your  ears." — Lu^f  4  :  17-24. 

"  It  was  from  Judea  that  there  arose  the  most  persistent  protests  against 
inequality,  and  the  most  ardent  aspirations  after  justice  that  have  ever 
raised  humanity  out  of  the  actual  into  the  ideal.  We  feel  the  effects 
still.  It  is  thence  hxs  come  the  leaven  of  revolution  which  still  moves 
the  world.  Job  saw  evil  triumphant  and  yet  believed  in  justice.  Israel's 
prophets,  while  thundering  against  iniquity,  announced  the  good  time 
coming." — EiniU  de  Lavcleye. 

In  the  adaptability  of  Christianity  to  the  ever-changing  con- 
ditions of  human  existence  those  who  need  such  proof  may 
find  one  of  the  strongest  confirmations  of  its  divine  authority. 
JWhile  the  other  great  religions  of  the  world  have  encased  their 
wearers  like  coats  of  mail,  preventing  industrial  growth, 
moral  enlargement  and  spiritual  expansion,  the  gospel  of 
Christ,  fitting  itself  to  every  incidence  of  man's  necessities, 
has  been  sufficient  in  its  fulness  for  the  constant  advancement 
of  civilization,  and  has  demonstrated  that  it  is  as  conformable 
to  every  righteous  requirement  of  the  age  of  industrialism  as 
it  was  to  that  of  ancient  slavery  and  mediaeval  chivalry!  The 
followers  of  other  faiths  are  in  the  same  material  and  moral 
condition  to-day  that  they  were  twelve  centuries  ago.  They 
have  been  repressed  by  an  inflexible  garment  of  human  make; 
their  philosophies  have  stood  still  so  long  that  manners  and 
morals  have  become  petrified,  and  their  present  differs  in  no 

(245) 


246  CHRISTIANITY   AND   LABOR  TROUBLES."' 

important  particular  from  those  pictures  of  the  past  that  have 
been  preserved  to  us  by  their  earliest  literature.  Creed  has 
crystalized  custom  into  an  iron  barrier  against  which  progress 
beats  in  vain,  and  the  tideless  waters  of  placidity  which  sur- 
round them  are,  in  contrast  with  the  notable  current  of  Chris- 
tian lands,  as  the  motionless  depths  of  the  Dead  Sea  to  those 
of  the  surging  Atlantic. 

A  great  writer,  whose  subject  necessarily  led  him  to  examine 
closely  the  influence  exercised  by  the  gospel  on  society,  has, 
in  an  eloquent  passage,  noted  how  completely  it  conforms  to 
the  varying  demands  of  time  and  circumstance.  ''It  was 
reserved  for  Christianity,"  says  Lecky,  in  his  **  History  of 
European  Morals,"  "to  present  to  the  world  an  ideal  char- 
acter, which  through  all  the  changes  of  eighteen  centuries 
has  inspired  the  hearts  of  men  with  an  impassioned  love;  has 
shown  itself  capable  of  acting  on  all  ages,  nations,  tempera- 
ments and  conditions ;  has  been  not  only  the  brightest  pattern 
of  virtue  but  the  strongest  incentive  to  its  practice,  and  that 
has  exercised  so  deep  an  influence  that  it  may  be  truly  said 
that  the  simple  record  of  three  short  years  of  active  life  has 
done  more  to  soften  and  regenerate  mankind  than  all  the 
disquisitions  of  philosophers  and  all  the  exhortations  of 
moralists." 

It  is  this  earthward  aspect  of  Christianity  that  chiefly  con- 
cerns the  statesman  and  political  economist,  because  of  the 
immediate  bearing  it  has  on  the  relations  of  men  to  each 
other.  Christianity  is  a  religion  for  life  as  well  as  for  death. 
It  inculcates  not  only  love  to  God,  but  the  duty  of  man  to  his 
fellows,  and  in  addition  to  rules  for  his  religious  guidance 
furnishes  him  with  counsel  for  his  government  in  those  in- 
tricacies of  affairs  and  of  the  family  that  are  daily  presenting 
themselves  for  a  solution.  Besides  preparing  the  individual 
for  that  vaster  sphere  qf  existence  which  lies  beyond  the 
grave,  it  seeks  to  direct  the  community  in  all  that  pertains  to 
its  social  and  political  well-being,  in  all  that  will  promote  the 
healthful  advancement  of  the  race,  and  in  all  that  will  con- 
tribute to  the  happiness  and  welfare  of  humanity.     Its  aim  is 


POWER  OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS.  247 

to  infuse  industrialism  with  the  spirit  of  love ;  to  breathe  into 
it  the  living  breath  that  will  raise  it  above  selfishness,  sordid- 
ness  and  the  vanity  of  wealth-getting,  and  in  thus  dignifying 
and  purifying  the  material  associations  make  of  them  a  means 
for  the  elevation  and  ennoblement  of  those  who  engage  in 
their  pursuit.  As  Maurice  said,  the  Bible  is  "  a  book  of  work 
and  business  and  politics,"  and  the  glorious  words  of  Milton, 
*'  There  are  no  songs  comparable  to  the  songs  of  Zion,  no 
orators  equal  to  those  of  the  prophets,  and  no  politics  like 
those  which  the  Scriptures  teach,"  have  been  confirmed  by 
the  experience  of  all  the  generations  that  have  lived  and  died 
since  Milton  wrote.  It  is  in  the  application  of  those  poli- 
tics as  taught  by  the  Scriptures  that  the  remedy  for  social 
evils  must  be  sought,  and  it  will  be  found  that  when  the 
economic  laws  are  tested  by  the  divine  they  will  take  on  a  new 
interpretation  and  subordinate  themselves  to  the  one  ever-rul- 
ing principle,  that  running  through  the  universe  sways  alike 
the  material  and  spiritual  domain — the  primal_law  of  love. 

It  is  useless  to  conceal  the  fact  that  the  two  great  divisions 
of  the  industrial  world  have  until  recently  regarded  the  Chris- 
tian ethics  as  wholly  inapplicable  to  their  dealings  with  each 
other  and  with  the  consumer.  They  might  have  given  re- 
luctant assent  to  a  proposition  embodying  their  applicability 
to  some  impossible  and  non-existent  community  of  ideal 
beings,  removed  by  education,  station  and  riches  from  the 
interests  and  temptations  of  ordinary  life,  but  capital  and 
labor  would  have  in  accord  declared  that  they  could  not  be 
carried  into  the  street,  the  mart,  and  the  workshop;  into 
manufacturing,  buying  and  selling;  the  hiring  of  service  and 
the  performance  of  contracts.  These  things  by  common  con- 
sent constituted  a  kind  of  mundus  diaboli  lying  beyond  the 
pale  of  morals.  Within  it  one  might  be  indifferently  honest, 
an  oppressor  of  labor,  untruthful,  regardless  of  implied  obli- 
gations, cruel,  and  a  doer  of  injustice,  and  his  character  would 
suffer  no  descent  in  the  general  esteem,  for  was  it  not  the 
kingdom  of  selfishness  whose  only  law  was  self-interest,  care- 
less of  the  hurt  done  to  others,  and  whose  only  creed  was  to 


248  POWER   OF  CHRISTIAN   ETHICS. 

get  money^  let  the  soiil-cost  be  what  it  might  ?  Such  was 
the  view  generally  taken  by  capital,  and  though  labor  looked 
at  it  more  in  tlie  liglit  of  indifferentism ;  as  something  too 
abstract,  too  unsubstantial  to  have  any  bearing  on  rough  toil, 
the  price  of  wages,  the  hours  of  labor,  the  safety  of  the  work- 
shop, the  well-being  of  children ;  they  equally  agreed  that  the 
commands  and  precepts  of  the  Bible  were  unfitted  for  the 
strain  of  daily  usage,  and  that  as  rules  of  conduct  they  were 
valueless,  or  had  at  best  only  a  sentimental  utility,  appre- 
ciated perliaps  by  sensitive  women,  but  useless  for  men.  That 
this  until  lately  should  have  been  the  opinion  of  the  toiling 
millions  in  Christian  lands  is  not  to  be  wondered  at.  En- 
circled by  unfair  conditions,  they  knew  not  how  many  others 
had  been  removed  ;  ignorant  of  the  past,  they  were  unable  to 
compare  it  with  the  present ;  and  conscious  of  the  evils  yet 
endured  they  wera.incapable  of  discerning  tliat  as  De  Tocque- 
ville  expresses  it,/Christianity  has  been  theft  companion  of 
liberty  in  all  its  conflicts,  the  cradle  of  its  infancy  and  the 
divine  source  of  its  claims.'? 

The  enormous  advance  made  by  the  working  classes  since 
the  commencement  of  the  century  is  however  now  as  apparent 
to  themselves  as  to  others.  It  is  visible  without  the  prior 
requirement  of  a  knowledge  of  history ;  for  men  can  mark 
the  change  within  the  span  of  their  own  lives,  and  if  they 
seek  its  cause,  observation  and  reason  will  have  no  difficulty 
in  recognizing  a  deeper  origin  for  it  than  mere  material  pro- 
gress. Behind  the  aid  of  countless  invention,  the  applications 
of  science  and  the  diffusion  of  information,  there  has  been  a 
controlling  impulse,  guiding  the  new  acquirements  of  man's 
mastery  to  his  own  higher  development,  and  drawing  him 
nearer  to  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  nature's  mysteries.  That  im- 
pulse has  been  the  counsel  of  love,  which  when  permitted 
to  operate  through  the  simple  truths  of  the  gospel  is  as  irresist- 
ible in  its  sphere  as  those"  other  laws  by  which  He  determines 
the  silent  growth  of  the  quickened  seed,  the  changeless  se- 
quence of  day  and  night,  and  the  orderly  movement  of  the 
immensities  that  forever  rush  through  the  infinity  of  space. 


GROUNDS  OP  rROGnEBS.  249 

A  brilliant  statesman  whose  i)liilosoi)hy  denied  the  divine 
origin  of  Christianity  was  yet  compelled  to  admit  that  "  no 
religion  ever  appeared  in  the  world  whose  natural  tendency 
was  so  much  directed  to  promote  the  peace  and  happiness  of 
mankind;  "  and  if  in  the  si)irit  of  Bolingbroke  we  trace  its 
history  as  a  mere  ethical  movement,  apart  from  its  inspired 
source,  it  will  be  found  to  have  been  almost  the  sole  influence 
in  reforming  the  condition  of  labor  and  bringing  it  into  ac- 
cord with  the  elements  of  justice.  For  ten  centuries  the 
church  stood  alone  in  her  protection  of  the  toiling  poor 
against  the  tyrannies  of  the  powerful,  and  when,  having  fos- 
tered liberty  in  parliaments  and  institutions,  these  first  re- 
enforced  and  then  received  her  transmitted  strength,  the 
forces  of  Christianity  silently  continued  their  work  until  labor 
had  been  dignified  in  all  her  estate.  From  the  slow  amelio- 
ration of  the  early  Roman  i)eri{)d ;  the  repression  of  licentious- 
ness, the  inculcation  of  humanity,  and  the  gradual  elevation 
of  labor;  through  the  more  rapid  changes  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  the  mitigation  of  slavery  by  serfdom,  the  growth  of 
personal  rights,  and  the  thousand  indications  that  marked 
the  emergence  of  a  new  civilization  ;  down  to  the  latest 
social  reform  of  yesterday ;  every  growth,  every  evolution, 
has  been  a  gift  to  labor  through  Christianity,  and  a  con- 
quest of  the  ethical  over  the  apparently  insurmountable  eco- 
nomic law. 

Regarded  therefore  purely  as  a  moral  force,  and  resting  its 
claim  to  consideration  solely  on  its  historical  achievements, 
Christianity  is  entitled  to  the  spontaneous  allegiance  of 
every  working  man  and  woman,  for  on  its  current  they  have 
been  borne  from  bondage  to  freedom,  from  ignorance  to 
knowledge,  from  the  animalism  of  the  undeveloped  being  to 
the  expansion  of  spiritual  manhood ;  and  the  drift  is  still  on- 
ward to  larger  liberty,  higher  attainments,  and  a  more  per- 
fect growth.  Commencing  with  the  overthrow  of  the  ancient 
temples  and  the  rescue  of  their  worshippers  from  the  bonds 
of  cruelty,  it  placed  on  high  as  a  model  for  human. conduct 
an  absolutely  i>erfect  conception  of  purity  and  self-sacrifice, 


250  GROUNDS   OF   PROGRESS. 

whose  every  word  was  in  sympathy  with  the  poor  and  toil- 
ing, and  whose  life  was  a  constant  protest  against  their  op- 
pression. Uttering  its  command  of  duty  to  the  state,  the 
family  and  the  individual,  the  grossness  of  the  early  types 
became  beautified  by  the  expression  of  love,  and  labor  stood 
before  the  world  transfigured.  Here  destroying  a  wrong  by 
attrition,  there  building  up  liberty  by  slow  upheaval,  and  now 
overturning  gigantic  evils  as  by  an  earthquake,  the  largest 
sharers  in  its  beneficence  have  been  the  slave,  the  serf,  and 
the  villein  ;  the  peasant,  the  laborer  and  the  artisan  ;  so  that 
however  much  those  who  work  for  wages  may  be  imbued  by 
the  prevalent  taint  of  materialism,  they  can  never  divest 
themselves  of  the  gospel  fruits;  for  these  are  now  incorpo- 
rated with  and  form  part  of  their  daily  lives.  Therefore,  as 
Lord  Bolingbroke  says,  even  supposing  Christianity  "to 
have  been  purely  a  human  invention,  it  had  been  the  most 
amiable  and  the  most  useful  invention  that  was  ever  imposed 
on  mankind  for  their  good." 

The  Christian  religion  is  so  inseparably  connected  with 
the  joys  and  sorrows,  the  temptations  and  triumphs,  the 
struggles  and  aspirations  of  the  toiling  masses,  that  it  would 
naturally  be  supposed  that  the  most  earnest  advocacy  for  the 
adoption  of  its  principles  by  the  industrial  world  would  come 
from  them.  No  literature  lies  so  close  to  the  hearts  of  the 
common  people  as  the  books  of  the  Bible,  because,  for  one 
thing,  in  no  other  volume  is  the  dignity  of  labor  so  exalted. 
It  enters  into  the  thoughts  of  workingmen  from  their  own 
standpoint.     It  requires  fair  wages,*  prompt  payment, f  and 


*  "  Woe  unto  him  that  buildeth  his  house  by  unrighteousness,  and  his 
chambers  by  wrong;  that  useth  his  neighbor's  service  without  wages,  and 
giveth  him  not  for  his  work," — yereviiah  2.1  :  13, 

f  "  The  wages  of  him  that  is  hired  shall  not  abide  with  thee  all  night 
until  the  morning." — Leviticus  19  :  13. 

"  Thou  shalt  not  oppress  art  hired  servant  that  is  poor  and  needy, 
•whether  he  be  of  thy  brethren,  or  of  thy  strangers  that  are  in  thy  land 
within  thy  gates  :  at  his  day  thou  shalt  give  him  his  hire  ;  neither  shall 
the  sun  go  down  upon  it;  for  he  is  poor,  and  setteth  his  heart  upon  it : 
lest  he  cry  against  thee  unto  the  Lord,  and  it  be  a  sin  unto  thee." — 
Deut,  24  :  14,  15. 


THK    FUHI.K  ON    TIIK    LABOR    ISSUE.  251 

Stated  periods  of  rest.  It  commends  and  honors  labor  well 
performed,  and  encourages  perseverance  in  faithful  doing. 
Through  the  pens  of  poets,  prophets  and  evangelists,  and  the 
words  of  One  greater,  it  denounces  all  who  deal  unjustly  with 
the  laborer.  It  sanctifies  his  toil  against  the  might  of  wealth 
and  rank,*  and,  breaking  the  silence  of  all  other  moral  codes, 
enforces  his  protection  as  the  basis  of  just  government  and 
the  corner-stone  of  society.  Remembering  that  inequality 
of  natural  condition  must  spring  from  inequality  of  natural 
endowments,  it  provides  the  only  possible  remedy,  by  enjoin- 
ing on  those  whom  God  has  made  the  custodian  of  his  gifts 
the  duty  of  sharing  them  with  others.  And  finally,  when 
oppression  prevails,  and  the  struggle  for  bread  becomes  so 
severe  that  even  patience  cries  out,  it  teaches  as  a  solace  that 
this  is  only  the  beginning  of  an  endless  journey,  and  that 
notwithstanding  temporary  injustice,  those  who  bear  them- 
selves well  and  prove  worthy  to  be  heirs  of  the  kingdom 
which  he  promised,  are  surely  laying  up  earnings  which  will 
be  repaid  in  the  future,  with  an  added  recompense  beyond 
the  conception  of  our  mortal  imagining. 

Thus  while  the  moralities  of  the  Bible  appeal  with  special 
force  to  those  who  belong  to  the  great  armies  of  industry,  its 
central  figure,  a  workingman,  and  in  his  earthly  relation  the 
son  of  a  workingman,  yet  standing  out  as  the  converging 
point  of  history,  religion  and  philosophy,  ought  also  to  com- 
mand the  absorbing  reverence  of  those  whom  he  proclaimed 
were  equals  in  the  sight  of  the  universal  Father  with  the 
proudest  patricians  of  the  state.  The  every-day  reality  of  his 
life,  his  humble  companionship,  his  personality  and  divine 
humanity,  his  condemnation  of  the  misuse  of  wealth,  and  his 


♦  "  He  that  oppresseth  the  poor  to  increase  his  riches^  .  .  .  shall  surely 
come  to  want." — Frov.  22  :  1 6. 

"  I  will  be  a  swift  witness  against  .  .  .  those  that  oppress  the  hireling 
in  his  wajjes." — Malachi  3:5. 

"  Behold,  the  hire  of  the  laborers  who  have  reaped  down  your  fields, 
which  is  of  you  kept  back  by  fraud,  crieth ;  and  the  cries  of  them  which 
have  reaped  are  entered  into  the  ears  of  the  Lord  of  Sabaolh." — Jiimes 
5:4. 


252  REMEDY  FOR  WRONGS. 

elucidation  of  social  problems  that  have  a  nearer  concern  for 
the  working  classes  than  others,  should  furthermore,  apart 
from  still  higher  claims,  enshrine  him  in  their  affections. 
His  mission  was  to  rescue.  He  came  to  free  them  from  every 
form  of  social  enslavement,  as  well  as  from  bondage  to  the 
inferior  elements  of  their  own  nature,  from  limb  thrall  as 
well  as  from  soul  thrall,  and  his  gospel  was,  and  ever  will 
be,  a  more  potential  proclamation  of  liberty  to  the  captive, 
of  social  amelioration  to  the  neglected,  of  hope  for  the  miser- 
able, and  of  justice  to  the  injured,  than  any  remedy  devised 
of  man. 

Industrial  sociology  may  be  said  to  have  had  its  origin  in 
Christianity,  and  the  social  problems  of  to-day  are  essentially 
religious  problems.  It  has  become  therefore  in  its  most 
profound  sense  the  science  of  applied  duties,  tlie  co-operation 
of  scientific  method  with  religion,  the  alliance  of  faith  in  God 
and  faith  in  man  with  the  industrial  occupations,  and  a  pro- 
jection from  Christ  into  the  active  life  of  an  active  world. 
In  this  way  Christianity,  when  unopposed,  promotes  the  ad- 
vance of  society  without  those  outbursts  of  violent  energy  that 
otherwise  accompany  the  movement.  It  offers  to  social  dis- 
content a  more  efficient  remedy  than  revolution,  and  to  unfair 
social  and  industrial  conditions  the  gradual  alleviation  of 
helpful  sympathy.  It  extirpates  poverty  and  distress,  not  by 
filching  from  wealth,  but  by  a  correct  understanding  of  the 
laws  of  nature,  by  self-reliance,  and  the  loving  aid  of  others. 
Recognizing  the  ills  inseparable  from  human  existence,  it 
would,  by  making  ownership  a  trust,  reduce  them  to  their 
smallest  proportions,  and  by  removing  the  curse  from  the  or- 
dainment  of  labor  (the  sting  of  which  is  to-day  not  implanted 
of  God  but  made  by  man),  transform  it  into  a  necessary 
means  for  the  attainment  of  happiness  and  a  motive  power 
for  enlightened  progression.  It  seeks  to  replace  the  cruelty, 
greed  and  selfishness,  that  now  poison  industrialism,  with  kind- 
ness, honesty  and  consideration,  and  after  converting  ancient 
enemies  into  allies,  bring  competition  under  the  restraint  of 
the  higher  law.     Indicating  the  method  by  which  the  labor 


REMEDY  FOR  WRONGS.  253 

factor  can  be  admitted  to  a  larger  participation  in  the  profits 
of  production  without  loss  to  capital,  it  would,  by  maintain- 
ing equilibrium  in  the  industrial  world,  give  stability  to  every 
other  portion  of  the  social  fabric.  Finally,  Christianity  de- 
sires to  complete  its  triumphs  by  changing  combinations  for 
disorder  into  bonds  of  conciliation,  and  having  thus  carried 
the  principles  of  its  obligations  into  every  relation  of  capital 
and  labor,  emphasize  by  the  stilled  waters,  tho  resultant  har- 
mony of  opposites  and  the  growth  of  a  purified  society, 
that  the  gospel  is  a  religion  fitted  for  to-day,  and  that  /'/ 
will  answer  the  social  problems  of  to-day,  whether  pro- 
pounded by  workman,  employer,  or  consumer,  with  a  wis- 
dom that,  surpassing  worldly  knowledge,  partakes  of  its  source 
— the  Infinite  and  Divine. 

It  is  no  reply  to  turn  from  these  social  idealisms  and  point- 
ing to  the  jarring  factions  of  industrialism;  to  the  bruised 
bodies  and  souls  that  it  flings  from  out  its  giant  wheels ;  to 
the  multitudes  that  it  yearly  hurries  to  death,  abstracted 
and  bereft  of  spiritual  elements ;  to  the  heartlessness  with 
which  it  crushes  the  weak,  and  the  glory  with  which  it  exalts 
success,  and  ask  of  religion,  "Is  this  thy  victory?"  It  is 
no  reply  to  trace  the  falsehoods  that  in  its  realm  pass  current 
for  verities;  the  ignoble  strivings  for  gain,  the  deeds  that 
make  light  of  honor,  and  the  daily  gamblings  with  the  har- 
vests of  God,  that  but  for  the  counterforce  of  other  gamblers 
would  result  in  famine  pacts  a  thousand  times  more  extensive 
and  equally  as  infamous  as  those  devised  by  Louis  the  Well- 
Beloved.  It  is  no  reply  to  point  to  the  human  wreckage ;  to 
the  worthless  drift  that  floats  aimlessly  from  city  to  city;  to 
courts  clogged  by  dispute ;  to  the  combinations  of  labor  for 
the  oppression  of  labor ;  to  the  ill-paid  hazard  of  the  worker, 
and  the  luxurious  lounging  of  the  idler ;  to  the  subversion  of 
all  the  higher  attributes  of  man  by  the  false  commercial  prin- 
ciples that  govern  the  rush  for  wealth,  and  ask  of  Christianity, 
*'Are  these  thy  accomplishments,  these  thy  reduced  strong- 
holds, these  thy  conquests?  "  They  are  neither  victories  nor 
defeats,  fields  won  or  lost ;  but  fortresses  as  yet  unbesieged, 


254  CHRISTIAN   UNITY. 

provinces  as  yet  unattacked ;  an  enemy's  country,  in  truth, 
but  one  that  has  not  yet  heard  the  trumpet  demand  for 
surrender. 

"  To  say  that  Christianity  has  proved  a  failure  is  indeed 
to  trifle  with  the  truth  of  history,"  *  and  to  announce  defeat 
while  her  forces  are  yet  being  marshalled  for  the  assault. 
In  the  comparatively  few  cases  where  business  affairs  have 
been  conducted  on  the  basis  of  the  Christian  ethics  the  re- 
sults have  served  to  show  that  there  is  no  conflict  with  the 
laws  that  govern  industrial  success.  On  the  contrary,  they 
indicate  that  as  the  fulfilled  obligations  of  society  to  the  in- 
dividual favor  social  and  industrial  well-being,  so  a  recogni- 
tion and  acceptance  of  the  inherent  duties  of  capital  to  labor 
increases  the  gain  of  both,  and  a  conformity  to  moral  require- 
ments in  the  relations  of  labor  to  capital  conduces  to  the  best 
interests  of  the  worker  and  his  employer.  It  is  apparent 
from  them  that  competition  can  be  tinged  with  humani- 
tarianism  without  abatement  of  profit,  and  that  the  sensitive 
register  of  the  relative  preponderance  of  capital  and  labor, 
production  and  consumption,  known  as  supply  and  demand, 
can  be  regulated  without  infringing  the  rights  of  producer  or 
consumer.  It  is  further  manifest  that  the  commercial  spirit 
is  not  of  necessity  opposed  to  altruism,  and  that  there  is  no 
reason  why  labor  and  capital  should  not  so  order  their  asso- 
ciate affairs  as  to  make  them  accord  with  the  Christian  mo- 
tives. In  addition,  practical  experience  confirms  the  propo- 
sition, reiterated  in  so  many  of  these  pages,  that  the  only 
satisfactory  solution  of  the  problems  of  industrialism  is  con- 
tained in  that  master  law  to  which  all  others  are  by  the  di- 
vine ordinance  ultimately  subject,  and  which  was  enunciated 
in  its  fulness  by  Christ  when  he  said,  ''A  new  commandment 
I  give  unto  you,  that  ye  love  one  another." 

The  many-sided  endeavors  of  social  science,  the  amend- 
ment  of  civil  decree,  the  attainment  of  the  substratum  of 


*  See  article  by  Mr.  George  Frederick  Parsons,  "  On  the  Decline  of 
Duty,"  Atlantic  Monthly,  May,  1887. 


KEY   TO   TIIK    PUOIJLIMS.  255 

tnith  underlying  socialism,  and  all  industrial  reform,  to  be 
successful,  must  start  from  this  basis.  It  has  elevated  the 
social  life  of  man  from  a  condition  of  instinct,  dominated  by 
passion,  to  a  humanity  that  encompasses  the  world.  It  has 
nurtured  his  moral  life  from  infinitesimal  beginnings  until 
the  dcveloj^mcnt  has  evolved  a  type  of  manhood  and  woman- 
hood as  distinctively  superior  to  their  primitives  as  the  flower 
to  the  seed.  It  has  strengthened  and  broadened  his  national 
life,  and  added  to  the  beauty  and  joy  of  his  physical  vitality. 
It  has  given  a  new  meaning  to  his  intellectual  being,  and 
breathed  into  his  flickering  spirituality  the  breath  of  a  new 
existence.  To  say  that  while  these  portions  of  man's  nature 
are  brought  within  its  rule  the  industrial  motives  are  exempt, 
would  be  to  claim  that  in  the  immensity  of  ocean  one  wave 
rolled  imperturbed  by  current,  wind  or  tide,  and  unbound  by 
laws  to  which  the  myriad  orbs  of  the  universe  give  heed. 
Reason  tells  us  this  is  an  impossibility,  and  in  the  same  man- 
ner Christianity,  sent  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer,  per- 
mits no  waves  of  human  volition  to  range  beyond  the  mystical 
influence  expressed  by  it  as  love. 

It  is  this  influence  that  like  a  living  spring  waters  the  fields 
of  our  sciences  and  philosophies,  making  them  fruitful  for 
humanity.  It  is  this  emanation  from  the  religion  of  Jesus  that 
gives  us  not  only  "  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of 
God,**  but  the  light  and  knowledge  necessary  to  meet  the 
exigencies  of  mortal  life  in  its  daily  requirements;  placing  in 
our  hands  the  key  to  all  industrial  problems,  the  solvent  for 
all  class  distinctions,  the  law  for  all  righteous  elevation,  the 
remedy  for  all  remediable  social  evils  and  the  method  of  ad- 
justment for  all  conflicting  interests.  We  have  in  it  a  cer- 
tain preventive  against  the  dangers  that  menace  society 
I'rom  the  indiff*erentism  of  wealth,  the  pressure  of  poverty,  the 
recklessness  of  anarchy,  and  the  blindness  of  materialism. 
It  is  this  that  reconciles  a  divided  humanity,  and  makes  rich 
and  poor,  employer  and  emploj'ed,  joint  participants  in  that 
triumph  of  dominion  which  God  in  these  latter  days  has  i>er- 
mitted  us  to  assume  over  nature.     Of  him  and  from  him,  it 


256  KEY   TO   THE   PROBLEMS. 

Streams  in  ceaseless  flood,  illuminating  our  troubled  igno- 
rance, making  our  dark  places  plain,  and  guiding  both  the  in- 
dividual and  society  towards  a  realization  of  his  kingdom. 
Suffused  by  it  the  landscape  of  our  lives  emerges  from  the 
shadow,  neglects  and  apathies  become  obligations,  and  obli- 
gations pleasant  duties.  Economic  laws,  relieved  of  their 
harshness,  take  on  the  form  of  salutary  behest ;  our  deadly 
conflicts  for  the  gifts  of  God's  bounty  are  tempered  to  the 
gentler  strivings  of  emulation,  and  the  vexed  seas  of  indus- 
trialism subside  from  their  stormings  into  peace. 


INDEX. 


About,  E.,  on  the  origin  of  capi- 
tal, 74. 
Administrative  ability,  value  of,  72, 

Akroyd,  Edward,  quoted,  109. 
Apprenticeship,  the  decay  of,  1 27, 

128;  the  craft  guilds  and,  203; 

opposition  of  trade-unions  to,  235. 
Anarchy,  the  dangers  from,  232. 
Arbitration,  practical  value  of,  191- 

195- 

Argyle,  the  Duke  of,  on  factory 
legislation,  79. 

Atkinson,  Edward,  on  the  im- 
proved condition  of  Labor,  53 ; 
on  the  purchasing  power  of 
wages,  54  (note);  on  railroad 
labor,  57. 

Auchmuty,  Richard  T,,  on  trade 
schools,  128. 

Augustine  on  Labor,  26. 

Behrends,  Dr.  A.  J.  F.,  on  trans- 
mitted wealth,  78. 

Bible,  the,  on  transmitted  wealth, 
77 ;  on  the  ethics  of  ownership, 
loi  ;  on  wages,  113,  142,  214, 
215;  on  settlement  of  disputes 
by  arbitration,  191  ^note) ;  the 
politics  of,  247  ;  Labor  exalted 
by,  250,  251. 

Bigelow,  Erastus  E.,  on  social 
progress,  49 ;  on  equitable  dis- 
tribution, 142. 

Birmingham  as  a  municipal  exam- 
ple, 95,  96. 

Bismarck  quoted,  98. 

Bolles  on  land  monopolies,  236 ; 
on  strikes,  238  (note). 

Bolingbroke  on  Christianity,  249, 
250. 


Brace,  C.  Loring,  on  distribution 
of  wealth,  82;  on  dangerous 
classes,  84 ;  on  apostolic  com- 
munism, 102 ;  on  the  human- 
itarian influence  of  Christianity, 
107. 

Brassey,  Sir  Thomas,  on  cheap 
workmen,  114;  on  social  reforms, 
135;  on  rate  of  profit,  152. 

Brentano  '♦  On  Guilds,"  204  (note), 
206. 

Brown,  Dr,  T.  Edwin,  on  social- 
ism, 230  (note). 

Buckle  quoted,  14. 

Campbell,  Mrs.  Helen,  quoted,  173. 

Capital  and  Labor,  the  dispute  be- 
tween, 140,  141 ;  common  in- 
terests of,  145,  221  ;  relative 
profits  of,  150-152. 

Capital,  necessity  of,  to  Labor,  73; 
the  advantages  of,  over  Labor, 
148,  149 ;  entitled  to  fair  profit, 
220. 

Carlyle,  on  profit  sharing,  170 
(note). 

Chadbourne,  Professor,  quoted,  1 12. 

Chadwick  on  the  education  of 
Labor,  127. 

Charitable  bequests,  total  of,    134, 

i35. 

Chartist  agitation,  36,  37. 
Chateaubriand  quoted,  26. 
Cheapening  of  goods,  undue,  22a- 

222. 
Cheapening  of  products,  50. 
Chevalier,  Michael,  quoted,  39. 
Child-labor,  early  inhumanities  of, 

29-31  ;  economic  results  of,  30, 

189 ;  Parliamentary  report  quoted, 

3»- 

(267) 


258 


INDEX. 


Christian  ethics  of  ownership  com- 
pared with  pagan,  io6,  107 ; 
applicability  of,  to  industrialism, 
108-112,  116,  247,  248. 

Christianity,  effect  on  social  prob- 
lems of,  26,  37,  67,  191,  248; 
an  upholder  of  Labor,  35  ;  the 
ethical  force  of,  38,  39 ;  its  in- 
culcations to  wealth,  105-107  ; 
teachings  about  wage  payment, 
113,  142,  214;  idleness  not 
countenanced  by,  120;  gave  La- 
bor new  aspect,  139;  arbitra- 
tion inculcated  by,  191  (note); 
human  rights  protected  by,  244  ; 
industrialism  and,  246 ;  the 
guiding  power  of,  248;  the 
remedies  offered  by,  253 ;  the 
mission  and  triumphs  of,  254-256. 

Cicero  quoted,  18  (note). 

Commerce,  increase  of,  46. 

Competition  of  laborers,  190. 

Conflicting  interests,  how  to  recon- 
cile, 237. 

Consumption,  increased  powers  of, 
52,  60. 

Corporate  relief  societies,  90. 

Corporations,  moral  responsibility 
of,  112;  vices  of,  154,  155. 

Crime  and  pauperism,  decrease  of, 
62,  65. 

Co-operation,  the  birth  of,  62  ;  the 
ethical  effects  of,  159- 161  ;  dif- 
ferent forms  of,  162;  early  fail- 
ures of  simple,  163,  164;  Eng- 
lish and  French  experiments  in, 
165,  166;  distributive,  178-180. 

Co-operative  union,  the,  168. 

Danton  quoted,  37. 

De  Tocqueville  on  Christianity, 
248. 

Duty  of  legislators  on  Labor  ques- 
tions, 42,  92. 

Earnings,   method  of  determining 

true,  153. 
Educational    facilities,     improved, 

61  ;  the  need  of  better,  128. 
Ely,  Professor,   on   profit   sharing, 

170  (note) ;  on  the  ethical  force 

of  the  Labor  movement,  225. 
Employer  and  employed,  friendly 

relations  of,  123-126. 


Employer's  liability  for  accidents, 

91,92. 
Equity,  economic  value  of,  108-1 10. 

Factory  acts,  ^^. 

Factory  system,  rise  of  the,  28 ; 
its  early  abuses,  29 ;  current 
evils  of,  in  the  United  States,  40, 
41  ;  benefits  arising  from  the,  43, 

79- 

Fair  prices,  219-222. 

Fair  wages,  74;  definition  of,  142. 

Froude,  J.  A.,  on  human  rights,  81. 

Fulfilled  duties  the  social  safe- 
guard, 233. 

Garfield,  President,  quoted,  224. 

Gibbon  quoted,  17  (note). 

Giffen     on    the    progress    of    the 

working  classes,  58,  61,  65. 
Gladden,     Rev.     Washington,    on 

profit  sharing,  170  (note),  177. 
Godin's  Familistere,  172,  173. 
Governmental   remedies   for  social 

defects,  90-94. 
Guilds  (see  Trade-unions). 

Ham,  Charles  H.,  on  slave  labor  in 
ancient  Rome,  19 ;  on  technical 
education,  86 ;  on  Roman  ethics, 
106. 

Handicraft,  a  knowledge  of,  a 
crime  preventative,  130. 

Harrison,  Frederick,  on  modern 
industrialism,  149  ;  on  the  failure 
of  co-operation,  163 ;  on  social 
distress,  181. 

Hazardous  occupations,  87;  com- 
pulsory insurance  in,  89,  90. 

Hours  of  Labor,  decrease  in,  53, 
59,  130;  Ruskin  on,  131 
(note). 

Hughes,  Thomas,  quoted,  37. 

Huxley,  Professor,  quoted,  45. 

Industrial  partnership  as  a  solvent 
of  the  Labor  question,  159. 

Industrial  sociology  originated  with 
Christianity,  252. 

Inequality,  a  natural  law,  70;  so- 
cial-economic effects  of,  71. 

Inheritance,  inquiry  as  to  rights  of, 
81. 

Inherited  wealth,  75. 


INDEX. 


259 


Insurance,  laws  of  Germany,  89 ; 

value  of,  186. 
Intemperance  and  poverty,  182. 
Invention,  the  age  of,  27. 

Jervis  quoted,  179. 
Jones,  Lloyd,  on  co-operation,  179 
(note). 

K  ingsley, Charles,  quoted,  35 ,  36, 39. 

Labor  and  Christianity,  26,  35,  37, 
38,  139,  140,  246-254. 

Labor  in  ancient  Rome,  14-22;  in 
France  before  the  Revolution, 
23  ;  Augustine  on,  26;  improved 
condition  of,  during  the  century, 
49-60 ;  effects  on  beneficial  leg- 
islation, 63,  64 ;  Lalxjr  not  a 
commodit]^  112,  146;  cheap 
Labor  unprofitable,  114;  earn- 
ings of,  150-152;  Labor  not  en- 
titled to  prepayment,  153;  capi- 
talized value  of,  151  (note),  187  ; 
repeal  of  laws  against  combina- 
tions of,  207  ;  the  equitable  de- 
mands of,  219;  cheap  goods 
and,  220 ;  unfair  hostility  of,  to 
capital,  229,  230 ;  socialism  and, 
230,  231  ;  Anarchism  and,  232; 
attempt  of  trade-unions  to  make  a 
monopoly  of,  254-256 ;  Christi- 
anity and,  248-252. 

Labor  problem,  antiquity  of  the, 
12;  sympathy  as  a  solvent  for 
the,  34,  126;  vast  importance  of 
the,  137 ;  the  ancient  methods 
of  solving  the,  138 ;  the  Chris- 
tian solution  of  the,  139;  the 
problem  formulated,  140,  141  ; 
temperance  and  the,  183 ;  im- 
provident marriages  and  the,  184 ; 
influence  of  materialism  on  the, 
195 ;  the*  final  solution  of  by 
Christianity,  254-256. 

Labor-saving  machinery,  effects  of, 

56.  57»  130. 
Lavaleye,  Emile  de,  on  the  Spen- 

cerian   philosophy,    116    (note); 

on  socialism,  230  (note). 
Lecky  quoted,  246. 
Leclaire's  success  in  profit-sharing, 

171. 
Liberality  [vofitable,  115. 


Ludlow,  John  Malcolm,  on  Guilds, 
204. 

Macaulay  quoted,  99. 

Macdonald,  John,  on  the  welfare 
of  society,  95. 

Man  versus  the  State,  117,  118. 

Manufacturers'  combinacions,  215- 
218. 

Marriage,  improvident,  184. 

Materialism,  influence  of,  on  the 
Labor  question,  195-198;  ulti- 
mate effects  of,  200. 

Maurice  on  the  neglects  of  the 
Church  of  England,  32 ;  on  pov- 
erty of  agricultural  laborer,  59; 
on  co-operation,  163;  on  the 
politics  of  the  Bible,  247. 

McMaster,    Professor,   quoted,   46, 

50- 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  on  inherited 
wealth,  76;  on  property  rights, 
81 ;  on  distributive  justice,  145  ; 
on  social  miseries,  184;  on  undue 
cheapening  of  goods,  222 ;  on 
the  neglected  duties  of  Labor, 
228  (note). 

Miners'  wages,  88. 

Mulhall  on  the  progress  of  the 
working  classes,  65  ;  quoted,  45, 
46.  59,  65,  88. 

Mundella  on  arbitration,  193. 

Mutual  help,  116,  136. 

Newcomb,  Professor  Simon,  quoted, 
64. 

Organized  charity,  133,  134. 

Owen,  Robert,  social-industrial  re- 
forms introduced  by,  32. 

Oldham,  co-operation  in,  167,  168 
(note). 

Overwork,  evils  of,  29-31,  41, 130- 
132. 

Parson,  Geo.  F.,  quoted,  254. 

Pidgeon,  Daniel,  quoted,  44. 

Postal  Savings  Banks,  92. 

Profit-sharing,  educational  value  of, 
169;  general  applicability  of, 
170;  I^claire  and  Godin's  suc- 
cess in,  171-173;  European  and 
American  success  in,  174-176; 
ethical  value  of,  177. 


260 


INDEX. 


Profits   and   earnings,   analysis  of, 

150-152, 
Progress  and  poverty,  not  associate 

terms,  51. 
Progress    of   the    working-classes, 

64-66. 
Property,  private,  a  natural  right, 

73- 
Provident  habits,  185,  186. 

Reany,  Rev.  G.  S.,  on  materialism 
and  the  Labor  question,  197. 

Rich  growing  richer,  143,  144. 

Rogers,  Thorold,  on  cheap  Labor, 
146 ;  on  laws  against  combina- 
tions, 207;  on  trade-unions,  213; 
on  strikes,  238. 

Rome,  extent  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, 14;  magnificence  of  an- 
cient, 15;  Roman  luxury,  16; 
slavery,  17;  Labor  in,  19;  Ro- 
man inhumanity,  19,  22 ;  con- 
tempt for  Labor,  20;  street 
scenes  in,  21 ;  the  Amphitheatre, 
22. 

Ruskin,  John,  on  hours  of  Labor, 
131  (note);  on  monopoly,  154; 
on  cheap  goods,  220. 

Russell,  Scott,  on  technical  edu- 
cation, 62,  86,  127. 

Ryan,  Daniel  J.,  on  arbitration, 
192  ;  on  strikes,  238,  240. 

Sanitary  dwellings,  83,  84. 

Saving,  importance  of  aids  to,  123, 
133;  value  of,  185;  Savings 
Banks,  92. 

Savings,  increase  of,  55,  60,  65. 

Self-help,  duty  of,  119,  120. 

Serfdom,  38,  45. 

Shaftesbury,  Lord,  quoted,  33,  69. 

Skill,  value  of,  188. 

Smith,  Rev.  J.  Talbot,  quoted,  41. 

Social  affinity,  159. 

Social  questions,  duty  of  the  munic- 
ipality, 95-97  ;  of  the  State,  98- 
100,  117-119;  of  the  individual, 
122. 

Socialism,  Emile  de  Laveldye  on, 
230  (note);  Dr.  T.  E.  Brown 
on,  231  (note) ;  the  mistakes  of, 
230,  231  ;  Anarchy  and,  232. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  on  the  natu- 
ral right  to    property,    73 ;    on 


"  Self-help,"  115  ;  on  social  mis- 
eries, 184. 

Strikes,  discouraged  by  English 
trade-unions,  209 ;  general  fu- 
tility of,  238  ;  statistics  of  failures, 
239 ;  attendant  evils  of,  240 ; 
losses  resulting  from,  241  ;  the 
occasional  justice  of,  242,  243. 

Sum.ner,  Professor,  quoted,  117. 

Sympathy,  a  social  solvent,  34, 
126. 

Taylor,  Sedley,  on  the  wage  sys- 
tem, 162  (note) ;  on  "  Profit 
Sharing,"  170. 

"  Teachings  of  the  Twelve  Apos- 
tles" quoted,  120  (note). 

Technical  education,  62 ;  social 
inequality  diminished  by,  86 ; 
economic  value  of,  127. 

Thornton  on  social  inequalities, 
77 ;  on  the  requisites  for  co- 
operation, 164;  on  the  indus- 
trial system,  166 ;  on  strikes, 
238. 

Trade  schools,  129. 

Trade  unions,  incomes  of  English, 
64 ;  origin  of,  201  ;  features  of 
early,  203  ;  mediaeval,  204-207  ; 
benefits  resulting  from,  208  ;  dis- 
couragement of  strikes  by,  209  ; 
arbitration  favored  by,  210; 
formation  of  American,  211  ;  the 
gain  of  capital  from,  212;  Tho- 
rold Rogers  on,  213;  preven- 
tion of  undue  competition  by, 
214;  summary  of  the  good  ef- 
fected by,  224-226 ;  arbitrary 
measures  of,  234;  opposition  to 
apprenticeship  of,  235 ;  wrong 
ideas  of  liberty  held  by,  236. 

Trant,  Wm.,  on  trade-unions,  208. 

Unemployed,  the,  55. . 
Unrest  a  sign  of  progress,  1 1 . 

Wage-service,  the  duty  of,  22. 

Wages,  increase  of,  dViring  the  cen- 
tury, 51-59;  effect  of  unjust, 
112;  the  teachings  of  the  Bible 
on,  113  ;  just  wages  profitable  to 
employer,  114;  what  constitutes 
fair,  142  ;  effect  of  undue  cheap-* 
ening  of  goods  on,  220. 


INDEX. 


261 


Walker,  Profc«isor,  nuotcd,  147. 

Wealth,  increase  of,  47,  48,  143  ; 
ine<{uaUties  of,  77  ;  transmission 
off  78  ;  present  form  of  distribu- 
tion not  final,  82  ;  ethics  of,  loi  ; 
the  mission  of,  103 ;  I^'il)or  the 
source  of,  104 ;  the  jH>wer  of, 
105;  right  uses  of,  no,  ill; 
wealth's  duty  of  leadership,  121  ; 
the  gifts  to  charily  by,  134,  135  ; 
selfishness  of,  198. 

Wines,  E.  G,,  quoted,  1 30. 

Women's  earnings,  147. 


Working  cla»es,  progren  of  the, 

64-66;  J.  S.  Mill  on  the  ne- 
glected duties  of  the,  228  (note) ; 
value  of  faithfulness  to  the,  229. 
Wright,  Carroll  D.,  on  the  ten 
hour  system,  41  ;  on  the  benefits 
of  the  factory  system,  43 ;  on  the 
increased  power  of  consumpHion, 
52 ;  on  average  earnings,  53,  54 
(note) ;  on  reduction  in  working 
hours,  59 ;  on  capital  account, 
150 ;  on  profit-sharing,  170 
(note)  ;  on  strikes,  238,  240. 


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